Reproductive impairment of a viviparous fish species inhabiting a freshwater system with anthropogenic impact.

The potential threat to animal reproduction by contaminated freshwater systems posed the necessity to identify and develop bioindicators and biomarkers to be used for screening and evaluation of the effects in organisms. The main goal of this work was to determine, through histological analyses and changes in gonopodium morphology, whether a freshwater system polluted by anthropogenic activities-sewage, agricultural, and industrial-could cause alterations at the organ level. We also propose the live-bearing fish, Jenynsia multidentata, as a species suitable to study the effects of contaminated aquatic environments. We compared male fish sampled at two different stations in Suquía River basin (Córdoba, Argentina), both differing in degree of pollution, through liver and testis histology and gonopodial morphometric parameters. The water quality, based on the physicochemical characteristics of the studied stations, varied markedly with a decrease in water quality at the downstream site (station 2). At the highest polluted area, detrimental effects on liver and testis were evidenced on histological analysis. Male individuals from station 2 also presented noticeable structural changes of the anal fin, such as a straight gonopodium and abnormal tip area. The present results demonstrate that a freshwater system polluted by the impacts of anthropogenic activities has detrimental effects to J. multidentata. The alterations registered in individuals from the polluted station indicate an impairment of male reproductive performance and imply a risk for other live-bearing species as well as the entire biodiversity. We consider J. multidentata a sentinel species that is useful to evaluate the potential risk present in the studied basin not only to itself but to other species as well.