Long-term effects of an early-life exposure of fathead minnows to sediments containing bitumen. Part II: Behaviour, reproduction, and gonad histopathology.

Autor: Vignet C; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada; Current Address C Vignet: Biochemistry and Toxicology of Bioactives Compounds (BTSB), University of Toulouse, INU Champollion, Albi, 81000, France., Frank RA; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., Yang C; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 335 River Road, Ottawa, ON, Canada., Shires K; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., Bree M; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., Sullivan C; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., Norwood WP; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., Hewitt LM; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., McMaster ME; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada., Parrott JL; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada. Electronic address: joanne.parrott@ec.gc.ca.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) [Environ Pollut] 2024 Sep 04; Vol. 362, pp. 124840. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 04.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124840
Abstrakt: The oil sands area of northern Alberta has river sediments that contain natural bitumen. Eggs and fish in these rivers may be exposed to bitumen-related chemicals early in life. This paper assesses a short embryo-larval fish exposure to oil sands sediment and follows the fish behaviour as they mature in clean water and examines their breeding success as adults (5 months afterwards). The three different oil sands river sediments tested were: a sediment collected outside of the bitumen deposit (tested at 3 g/L, Reference sediment from upstream Steepbank River site), and two sediments collected within the deposit (each tested at low (1 g/L) and high (3 g/L) concentrations). The sediments within the bitumen deposit were from the Ells and Steepbank (Stp) Rivers, and both contained significant total PAHs (>170 ng/g wet weight sediment) and alkylated PAHs (>4480 ng/g). Fish were exposed to these sediments for 21 days (as eggs and larval fish), and then transferred permanently to clean water to mature and breed. There was a significant decrease in the number of egg clutches produced by fish exposed early in life to Stp downstream high sediment (compared to Reference sediment). There was also a decrease in overall cumulative egg production, with fish from Stp downstream high sediment producing just over 1000 eggs in total while fish exposed to Ref sediment produced nearly 6900 eggs. The fish with reduced egg production were also less social than expected as they matured, and they had a lower % of early vitellogenic eggs in their ovaries. Overall, the exposure shows that a single, brief exposure during early life stages to natural bitumen can affect fish in adulthood. Naturally occurring bitumen-derived PAHs can reduce fish reproductive output by complex mechanisms, measurable as lower ovary maturity and changes in social behaviour.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Crown Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE