Department of Environmental Chemistry (IDAEA-CSIC), Jordi Girona, 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
Water Res. 2011 Jun;45(12):3599-613. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2011.04.006. Epub 2011 Apr 22.
Biological indexes, based on benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, are currently used worldwide to measure river ecological quality. These indexes assign a global ecological status of the biotic community, but not necessarily may detect specific effects of water pollutants. Conversely a large set of biochemical markers measured in macroinvertebrate benthic species can detect sublethal effects and inform us about additional environmental factors that are impairing benthic communities. This is especially interesting in moderately polluted sites, where other stressors are already affecting communities but not too strongly to be detected by biotic indexes. Up to ten different markers belonging to distinct metabolic paths and 42 contaminants measured in sample collections of the caddis fly Hydropsyche exocellata were assessed across a polluted gradient in the industrialized Mediterranean River basins of Besós and Llobregat (NE, Spain). Twenty four sample collections were selected to include macroinvertebrate communities representing the five impairment degrees defined by the Spanish Environmental authorities using the biotic metrics. Results evidenced a clear deterioration of the ecological water quality parameters and benthic communities towards downstream reaches. Biochemical responses varied significantly across the studied samples and were able to differentiate samples within communities having a good and deteriorated ecological stage. Principal Component Analyses indicated that salinity was one of the major stresses affecting macroinvertebrate assemblages, whereas antioxidant and metabolizing enzymes responded differently and were closely related to high and presumably toxic levels of accumulated organic pollutants. Therefore these results indicate that the use of multiple -markers sensitive to water pollution may provide complementary information to diagnose environmental factors that are impairing macroinvertebrate communities.
生物指标，基于底栖大型无脊椎动物分类群，目前在全球范围内用于衡量河流生态质量。这些指标赋予生物群落全球生态状况，但不一定能检测到水污染的特定影响。相反，在底栖无脊椎动物物种中测量的大量生化标志物可以检测到亚致死效应，并告知我们有哪些额外的环境因素正在损害底栖生物群落。这在中度污染的地点尤其有趣，在这些地点，其他压力源已经在影响群落，但还没有强烈到可以被生物指标检测到。在西班牙东北部工业化地中海流域的 Besós 和 Llobregat 污染梯度上，评估了属于不同代谢途径的多达十种不同的标志物和在蜉蝣 Hydropsyche exocellata 样本中测量的 42 种污染物。选择了 24 个样本收集，以包括使用生物指标定义的西班牙环境当局定义的五个受损程度的大型无脊椎动物群落。结果表明，生态水质参数和底栖群落沿着下游方向明显恶化。生化反应在研究样本中差异显著，并能够区分具有良好和恶化生态阶段的群落内的样本。主成分分析表明，盐度是影响大型无脊椎动物组合的主要压力之一，而抗氧化和代谢酶的反应不同，与积累的有机污染物的高且可能有毒水平密切相关。因此，这些结果表明，使用对水污染敏感的多种标志物可以提供补充信息，以诊断正在损害大型无脊椎动物群落的环境因素。
