Australian Rivers Institute, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland 4222, Australia.
Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland 4222, Australia. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/@Laurafgrogan.
Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol. 2024 Feb;276:109786. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpc.2023.109786. Epub 2023 Nov 16.
Climate change and other factors have contributed to an increased frequency and intensity of global wildfires in recent years. Ammonium-based fire retardants are widely used to suppress or delay the spread of fire and have generally been regarded as presenting a low risk of acute toxicity to fauna. However, studies have raised concerns about their potential to cause indirect or sub-lethal effects, and toxicity information regarding the potential for such impacts in aquatic species is limited. To address these knowledge gaps, we used an untargeted metabolomics approach to evaluate the sub-lethal physiological and metabolic responses of striped marsh frog (Limnodynastes peronii) tadpoles exposed to a concentration gradient of the ammonium polyphosphate (APP)-based fire retardant Phos-Chek LC95W (PC). Acute exposure (96 h) to PC significantly altered the relative abundance of 14 metabolites in whole tadpoles. The overall metabolic response pattern was consistent with effects reported for ammonia toxicity and also suggestive of energy dysregulation and osmotic stress associated with alterations to physicochemical water quality parameters in the PC treatments. Results suggest that run-off or accidental application of this formulation into waterways can have significant sub-lethal consequences on the biochemical profiles (i.e., the metabolome) of aquatic organisms and may be a concern for frog species that breed and develop in small, often ephemeral, waterbodies. Our study highlights the benefits of integrating untargeted metabolomics with other ecological and toxicological endpoints to provide a more holistic characterisation of the sub-lethal impacts associated with bushfire-fighting chemicals and with environmental contaminants more broadly.
气候变化和其他因素导致近年来全球野火的频率和强度增加。基于铵的阻燃剂被广泛用于抑制或延迟火势的蔓延，通常被认为对动物群急性毒性的风险较低。然而，研究引起了对其潜在的间接或亚致死效应的关注，并且关于这种影响在水生物种中存在的毒性信息有限。为了解决这些知识空白，我们使用非靶向代谢组学方法来评估暴露于浓度梯度的基于聚磷酸铵（APP）的阻燃剂 Phos-Chek LC95W（PC）的条纹沼泽蛙（Limnodynastes peronii）蝌蚪的亚致死生理和代谢反应。PC 的急性暴露（96 小时）显著改变了整个蝌蚪中 14 种代谢物的相对丰度。整体代谢反应模式与氨毒性的报道一致，也表明与 PC 处理中理化水质参数的变化相关的能量失调和渗透胁迫。结果表明，这种配方的径流或意外应用到水道中会对水生生物的生化特征（即代谢组）产生重大的亚致死后果，并且可能是在小型、通常是短暂的水体中繁殖和发育的青蛙物种的一个关注点。我们的研究强调了将非靶向代谢组学与其他生态和毒理学终点相结合的好处，以更全面地描述与丛林火灾扑救化学品以及更广泛的环境污染物相关的亚致死影响。
