Biomonitoring with Gammarus pulex at the Meuse (NL), Aller (GER) and Rhine (F) rivers with the online Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor®

Abstract

Biological early warning systems represent a set of tools that may be able to respond to certain chemical monitoring requirements of recent European legislation, the Water Framework Directive (WFD2000/60/EC), that aims to improve and protect water quality across Europe. In situ biomonitoring was performed along the rivers Meuse (NL), Aller (GER) and Rhine (F) within the frame of the European Union-funded Project SWIFT-WFD. Gammarus pulex was used as a test organism during the evaluation of the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor(R) (MFB), an online biomonitor to quantitatively record different behaviour patterns of animals. At the river Meuse G. pulex reacted to pulse exposure of either a mixture of trace metals or of several organic xenobiotics, by showing up to 20% decreased locomotory activity (already at the 1st pulse) and increased mortality (at 2nd or 3rd pulse only). G. pulex deployed within the MFB system were observed to survive well at the monitoring station on the Aller (100%) and monitoring did not result in the measurement of chemical irregularities. In contrast, deployment at the monitoring station on the Rhine river demonstrated that the test organism was able to detect chemical irregularities by up to 20% decreased locomotory activity in the animals. The MFB proved to be an alert system for water quality monitoring at sensitive sites and sites with accidental pollution.

Behavior of Corophium volutator (Crustacea, Amphipoda) exposed to the water‐accommodated fraction of oil in water and sediment

“…An increase in activity could also be observed for Crangonyx pseudogracilis (northern river crangonyctid) after exposure to a pulse of ammonium chloride [18]. In an in situ experiment at the Rhine River, G. pulex showed decreased activity due to an oil pollution peak [19]. This corresponds well with the narcotic effect of 100% WAF observed in our exposures with C. volutator and might have occurred in the pulse experiment if 100% WAF had been used.…”

Bioaccumulation, Biotransformation, and Synergistic Effects of Binary Fungicide Mixtures in Hyalella azteca and Gammarus pulex: How Different/Similar are the Two Species?

“…22,23 As a result of its widespread occurrence, ease of culture, environmental relevance and sensitivity towards chemicals, H. azteca has been used as test species for sediment and water quality assessment predominantly in North America, [24][25][26][27] whereas in Europe amphipods from the genus Gammarus are often used for biomonitoring or toxicity tests. [28][29][30] However, since culturing of Gammarus spp. is challenging, most laboratory studies that employ Gammarus spp.…”

Evaluation of the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor to Determine Behavioural Effects of Tributyltin and Atrazine on Daphnia Magna and Hyalella Azteca

“…According to the myriad of published literature (Gerhardt & Svensson, 1994;Gerhardt, 1995;Gerhardt, 1998;Gerhardt & Palmer, 1998;Gerhardt & Schmidt, 2002;Gerhardt et al, 2002a;Gerhardt et al, 2002b;Gerhardt et al, 2003;Gerhardt et al, 2004;de Bisthoven et al, 2004;Gerhardt et al, 2005a;Gerhardt et al, 2005b, de Bisthoven et al, 2006Gerhardt et al 2006;Kirkpatrick et al, 2006a;Kirkpatrick et al, 2006b;Gerhardt, 2007a;Gerhardt, 2007b;Gerhardt et al, 2007;Macedo-Sousa et al, 2007;Sardo et al, 2007;Ren et al, 2007;Kienle & Gerhardt, 2008;Kienle et al, 2008;Macedo-Sousa et al, 2008;Ren et al, 2008;Gerhardt, 2009;Kienle et al, 2009;Holmstrup et al, 2009;Ren et al, 2009;Langer-Jaesrich et al, 2010;Sardo & Soares, 2010), the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor (MFB) is a fullyautomatic, online, real-time biomonitor designed to record behavioural patterns of aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates, size permitting (Figure 1.7). It is a non-optical EWBS that uses an electrical field within individual chambers to monitor the behaviour and behavioural changes or aquatic organisms.…”