McCallum Erin S, Du Sherry N N, Vaseghi-Shanjani Maryam, Choi Jasmine A, Warriner Theresa R, Sultana Tamanna, Scott Graham R, Balshine Sigal
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada.
Department of Biology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada.
Aquat Toxicol. 2017 Mar;184:37-48. doi: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2016.12.017. Epub 2016 Dec 23.
Treated effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are a significant source of anthropogenic contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, in the aquatic environment. Although our understanding of how wastewater effluent impacts fish reproduction is growing, we know very little about how effluent affects non-reproductive physiology and behaviours associated with fitness (such as aggression and activity). To better understand how fish cope with chronic exposure to wastewater effluent in the wild, we caged round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) for three weeks at different distances from a wastewater outflow. We evaluated the effects of this exposure on fish survival, behaviour, metabolism, and respiratory traits. Fish caged inside the WWTP and close to the outfall experienced higher mortality than fish from the reference site. Interestingly, those fish that survived the exposure performed similarly to fish caged at the reference site in tests of aggressive behaviour, startle-responses, and dispersal. Moreover, the fish near WWTP outflow displayed similar resting metabolism (O consumption rates), hypoxia tolerance, haemoglobin concentration, haematocrit, and blood-oxygen binding affinities as the fish from the more distant reference site. We discuss our findings in relation to exposure site water quality, concentrations of pharmaceutical and personal care product pollutants, and our test species tolerance.
污水处理厂（WWTP）处理后的废水是水生环境中人为污染物（如药物）的重要来源。尽管我们对废水排放如何影响鱼类繁殖的理解在不断加深，但我们对废水如何影响与健康相关的非生殖生理和行为（如攻击性和活动）却知之甚少。为了更好地了解鱼类在野外如何应对长期接触废水排放的情况，我们将圆腹雅罗鱼（Neogobius melanostomus）在距离废水排放口不同距离的地方圈养了三周。我们评估了这种暴露对鱼类生存、行为、新陈代谢和呼吸特征的影响。圈养在污水处理厂内且靠近排放口的鱼类死亡率高于参考地点的鱼类。有趣的是，那些在暴露中存活下来的鱼类在攻击行为、惊吓反应和扩散测试中的表现与圈养在参考地点的鱼类相似。此外，靠近污水处理厂排放口的鱼类与来自更远参考地点的鱼类相比，在静息代谢（耗氧率）、耐缺氧能力、血红蛋白浓度、血细胞比容和血氧结合亲和力方面表现相似。我们结合暴露地点的水质、药物和个人护理产品污染物的浓度以及我们的测试物种耐受性来讨论我们的研究结果。
