Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (CSIC), Department of Ecology and Coastal Management, Campus Universitario Río San Pedro, s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain; Department of Aquatic Resource Management, Faculty of Fisheries, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet 3100, Bangladesh.
Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (CSIC), Department of Ecology and Coastal Management, Campus Universitario Río San Pedro, s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Nov 15;951:175849. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175849. Epub 2024 Aug 29.
Despite the existing connectivity and heterogeneity of aquatic habitats, the concept of interconnected landscapes has been frequently overlooked in ecotoxicological risk assessment studies. In this study, a novel mesocosm system, the HeMHAS (Heterogeneous Multi-Habitat Assay System), was constructed with the potential to assess structural and functional changes in a community resulting from exposure to contaminants, while also considering the complex ecological scenarios. Fish (Sparus aurata), shrimp (Palaemon varians) and three species of marine microalgae (Isochrysis galbana, Nannochloropsis gaditana and Tetraselmis chuii) were used as test organisms. Other species, such as Artemia sp. and macroalgae were also introduced into the system as environmental enrichment. All the species were distributed in five interconnected mesocosm compartments containing a copper gradient (0, 1, 10, 100 and 250 μg/L). The mobile fish avoided the copper contaminants from 1 μg/L (24 h-AC: 4.88 μg/L), while the shrimp avoided from 50 μg/L (24 h-AC50: 136.58 μg/L). This finding suggests interspecies interactions influence habitat selection in contaminated environments, potentially jeopardizing population persistence. Among the non-motile organisms, the growth and chlorophyll content of the microalgae were concentration dependent. The growth of I. galbana was more sensitive (growth inhibition of 50 % at the highest concentration) in contrast to N. gaditana (30 % inhibition at the highest concentration) and T. chuii (25 % inhibition at the last two highest concentrations). In summary, the mesocosm HeMHAS showed how contamination-driven responses can be studied at landscape scales, enhancing the ecological relevance of ecotoxicological research.
尽管水生栖息地已经存在连通性和异质性，但在生态毒理学风险评估研究中，相互关联的景观概念经常被忽视。在这项研究中，构建了一种新颖的中观系统 HeMHAS（多栖息地异质分析系统），该系统具有评估因暴露于污染物而导致群落结构和功能变化的潜力，同时还考虑了复杂的生态情景。鱼（真鲷）、虾（糠虾）和三种海洋微藻（新月菱形藻、钝顶节旋藻和三角褐指藻）被用作测试生物。其他物种，如卤虫和大型藻类，也被引入系统作为环境富集。所有物种都分布在五个相互连接的中观系统隔室中，这些隔室中含有铜梯度（0、1、10、100 和 250μg/L）。游动的鱼避开了 1μg/L 的铜污染物（24h-AC：4.88μg/L），而虾则避开了 50μg/L 的铜污染物（24h-AC50：136.58μg/L）。这一发现表明，种间相互作用会影响受污染环境中的栖息地选择，可能危及种群的生存。在非游动生物中，微藻的生长和叶绿素含量与浓度有关。与钝顶节旋藻（最高浓度时生长抑制率为 30%）和三角褐指藻（最后两个最高浓度时生长抑制率为 25%）相比，新月菱形藻的生长对铜更为敏感（最高浓度时生长抑制率为 50%）。总之，中观系统 HeMHAS 表明，如何在景观尺度上研究由污染驱动的反应，增强了生态毒理学研究的生态相关性。
