Assessment of Organic Pollutants Desorbed from Plastic Litter Items Stranded on Cadiz Beaches (SW Spain).

This paper constitutes a preliminary study that evaluates the organic pollutants desorbed from "fresh" plastic litter, i.e., recently stranded items, on three beaches in Cadiz (SW Spain): Bajo de Guia, La Jara, and La Puntilla.

Toward High-Throughput Fish Embryo Toxicity Tests in Aquatic Toxicology.

Addressing the shift from classical animal testing to high-throughput in vitro and/or simplified in vivo proxy models has been defined as one of the upcoming challenges in aquatic toxicology. In this regard, the fish embryo toxicity test (FET) has gained significant popularity and wide standardization as one of the sensitive alternative approaches to acute fish toxicity tests in chemical risk assessment and water quality evaluation. Nevertheless, despite the growing regulatory acceptance, the actual manipulation, dispensing, and analysis of living fish embryos remains very labor intensive.

"Nanosize effect" in the metal-handling strategy of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana exposed to CuO nanoparticles and copper ions in whole-sediment toxicity tests.

To date, the occurrence, fate and toxicity of metal-based NPs in the environment is under investigated. Their unique physicochemical, biological and optical properties, responsible for their advantageous application, make them intrinsically different from their bulk counterpart, raising the issue of their potential toxic specificity or "nanosize effect". The aim of this study was to investigate copper bioaccumulation, subcellular distribution and toxic effect in the marine benthic species Scrobicularia plana exposed to two forms of sediment-associated copper, as nanoparticles (CuO NPs) and as soluble ions (CuCl).

Emerging prospects of integrated bioanalytical systems in neuro-behavioral toxicology.

Neurotoxicity effects of industrial contaminants are currently significantly under investigated and require innovative analytical approaches to assess health and environmental risks at individual, population and ecosystem levels. Behavioral changes assessed using small aquatic invertebrates as standard biological indicators of the aggregate toxic effects, have been broadly postulated as highly integrative indicators of neurotoxicity with physiological and ecological relevance. Despite recent increase in understanding of the emerging value of behavioral biotests, their wider implementation especially in high-throughput environmental risk assessment assays, is largely limited by the lack of advances in analytical technologies.

Ecotoxicology Goes on a Chip: Embracing Miniaturized Bioanalysis in Aquatic Risk Assessment.

Biological and environmental sciences are, more than ever, becoming highly dependent on technological and multidisciplinary approaches that warrant advanced analytical capabilities. Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip technologies are perhaps one the most groundbreaking offshoots of bioengineering, enabling design of an entirely new generation of bioanalytical instrumentation. They represent a unique approach to combine microscale engineering and physics with specific biological questions, providing technological advances that allow for fundamentally new capabilities in the spatiotemporal analysis of molecules, cells, tissues, and even small metazoan organisms.

A Millifluidic System for Analysis of Daphnia magna Locomotory Responses to Water-born Toxicants.

Aquatic toxicity testing in environmental monitoring and chemical risk assessment is critical to assess water quality for human use as well as predict impact of pollutants on ecosystems. In recent years, studies have increasingly focused on the relevance of sub-lethal effects of environmental contaminants. Sub-lethal toxicity endpoints such as behavioural responses are highly integrative and have distinct benefits for assessing water quality because they occur rapidly and thus can be used to sense the presence of toxicants.

Unsuitable use of DMSO for assessing behavioral endpoints in aquatic model species.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a universally used aprotic solvent with the ability to permeate biological membranes and thus is commonly used to achieve appropriate biological availability of hydrophobic toxicants. While DMSO as a carrier medium has a reportedly low toxicity and is routinely employed in ecotoxicology, very little is known about its effect on dynamic behavioral parameters. This study presents a comparative analysis of the lethal and behavioral effects of exposures to DMSO concentrations of 0.

Bioaccumulation kinetics of copper in Ruditapes philippinarum exposed to increasing, continuous and pulsed exposure: Implications for growth.

Metal bioaccumulation and toxicity to aquatic organisms depends on factors such as magnitude, duration and frequency of the exposure. The type of the exposure affects the toxicokinetic processes in the organisms. In this study, we carried out 30-day toxicity tests on juveniles of Ruditapes philippinarum exposed to increasing, continuous and pulsed exposure.

Importance of subcellular metal partitioning and kinetics to predicting sublethal effects of copper in two deposit-feeding organisms.

The role of subcellular partitioning of copper on the sublethal effects to two deposit-feeding organisms (41-day growth in the bivalve Tellina deltoidalis and 11-day reproduction in the amphipod Melita plumulosa) was assessed for copper-spiked sediments with different geochemical properties. Large differences in bioaccumulation and detoxification strategies were observed. The bivalve accumulated copper faster than the amphipod, and can be considered a relatively strong net bioaccumulator.

Demonstrating the appropriateness of developing sediment quality guidelines based on sediment geochemical properties.

The pool of bioavailable metals in sediments is typically much smaller than the total metal concentration and is strongly influenced by metal-binding with acid-volatile sulfide (AVS), particulate organic carbon (OC), and iron and manganese oxide solid phases. We have investigated how the properties of relatively oxidized sediments influence the exposure and effects of copper on the survival and growth rate of the deposit-feeding benthic bivalve Tellina deltoidalis. Growth rate was a much more sensitive end point than survival.

Evaluating the suitability of Hydrobia ulvae as a test species for sediment metal toxicity testing applying a tissue residue approach to metal mixtures in laboratory and field exposures.

A major weakness in evaluating the suitability of a biomonitor organism is the poor ability to predict the variability of the bioavailability of metals from measured environmental concentrations. In this study, the intertidal gastropod Hydrobia ulvae was used to evaluate its suitability as a test organism for assessing sediment metal toxicity. Toxicity tests were run with sediments spiked with copper, cadmium and zinc applied both as single metal and as a mixture to investigate toxicological interactions evaluating different lethal and sublethal effects.

Sub-lethal effects of copper to benthic invertebrates explained by sediment properties and dietary exposure.

The next generation of sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) requires better established causal links between the chronic exposure and effects of metals from both dissolved and dietary sources. The potential for dietary exposure from sediment metals to cause toxic effects to benthic invertebrates is strongly influenced by the metal-binding properties of the sediments. For relatively oxidized sediments, sublethal effects of copper to the epibenthic deposit-feeding amphipod, Melita plumulosa, and the benthic harpacticoid copepod, Nitocra spinipes, were investigated.

Effect of lead on ALA-D activity, metallothionein levels, and lipid peroxidation in blood, kidney, and liver of the toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus.

The effects of lead (Pb) on ALA-D activity, metallothionein (MT) levels, and lipid peroxidation in liver, kidney, and blood of the toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus were investigated. A time-course experiment was performed with sampling on days 0, 2, 5, and 7 following intraperitoneal Pb injection. This indicated a rank order for lead concentration of kidney > liver > blood in fish exposed to Pb.