Biomarkers as diagnostic tools for evaluating effects of unknown past water quality conditions on stream organisms

The following biomarkers were investigated in stream populations of juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta f. fario) and gammarids (Gammarus pulex) to determine if crayfish mortality could have been confounded by pollutants: (1) alterations of fish liver ultrastructure, (2) fish gill and kidney histopathology, (3) stress protein (hsp70) expression in fish liver and gills and in gammarids, and (4) changes in various blood parameters of brown trout. In addition, the following measurements were conducted in parallel with the biological sampling: (a) chemical analyses including several pesticides, organochlorines, PCBs, and PAHs in sediment and tissue samples of brown trout and crayfish (Astacus astacus), and (b) limnochemical analyses of nutrients, electrolytes, dissolved oxygen content, temperature and pH. Biomarkers together with chemical and limnochemical analyses concomitantly indicated moderate pollution of the stream at all sampling sites. Biological data indicated a transient, episodic event at one sampling site resulting (a) in altered stress protein levels in gills and livers of trout and in whole gammarids as well as (b) in elevated numbers of macrophages in liver tissue. Biomarker responses provided spatial and temporal evidence that a contaminant release was associated with the crayfish mortalities observed in this stream system.