Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta T6G 2E9, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta T6G 1H9, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Environ Sci Technol. 2017 Jun 20;51(12):7128-7137. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.7b01650. Epub 2017 Jun 2.
If oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) is to be returned to the environment, a desire is that it not adversely affect aquatic life. We investigated whether a relevant model fish (rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss) could detect OSPW using its olfactory sense (smell) and whether exposure to it would result in behavioral changes. We also investigated whether ozonation of OSPW, which lowers the concentration of organic compounds attributed with toxicity (naphthenic acids), would ameliorate any observed adverse effects. We found that OSPW, regardless of ozonation, evoked olfactory tissue responses similar to those expected of natural odorants, suggesting that fish could smell OSPW. In 30 min OSPW exposures, olfactory responses to a food odorant and a pheromone were reduced to a similar degree by OSPW, again regardless of ozonation. However, olfactory responses returned within minutes of exposure cessation. In contrast, in longer (7 d) exposures, olfactory responses remained impaired, but not in fish that had received ozone-treated OSPW. In the behavioral assay, fish avoided an introduced plume of OSPW, and this response was not affected by ozonation. Taken together, our data suggest that fish smell OSPW, that they may use this sense to mount an avoidance response, and that, if they cannot avoid it, their sensory responses may be impaired, unless the OSPW has received some remediation.
如果油砂处理影响水（OSPW）要返回环境，人们希望它不会对水生生物产生不利影响。我们研究了相关模型鱼类（虹鳟鱼，Oncorhynchus mykiss）是否可以通过嗅觉（气味）检测到 OSPW，以及暴露于其中是否会导致行为发生变化。我们还研究了是否可以通过臭氧化 OSPW 来减轻其毒性（环烷酸）归因的有机化合物的浓度，从而改善任何观察到的不利影响。我们发现，无论臭氧化与否，OSPW 都会引起类似于天然气味预期的嗅觉组织反应，这表明鱼类可以闻到 OSPW。在 30 分钟的 OSPW 暴露中，OSPW 会以相似的程度降低对食物气味和信息素的嗅觉反应，这同样与臭氧化无关。但是，暴露停止后几分钟内嗅觉反应就会恢复。相比之下，在更长时间（7 天）的暴露中，嗅觉反应仍然受损，但臭氧处理的 OSPW 不会使鱼类受损。在行为测试中，鱼类会避开引入的 OSPW 羽流，而臭氧化不会影响这种反应。总之，我们的数据表明，鱼类可以闻到 OSPW，它们可能会利用这种感觉来做出回避反应，如果它们无法回避，它们的感官反应可能会受到损害，除非 OSPW 已经得到了一些补救。
