Effects of Louisiana crude oil on the sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) during a life‐cycle exposure to laboratory oiled sediment

Abstract

Determining the long-term effects of crude oil exposure is critical for ascertaining population-level ecological risks of spill events. A 19-week complete life-cycle experiment was conducted with the estuarine sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) exposed to reference (uncontaminated) sediment spiked with laboratory weathered South Louisiana crude (SLC) oil at five concentrations as well as one unspiked sediment control and one seawater (no sediment) control. Newly hatched larvae were exposed to the oiled sediments at measured concentrations of < 1 (sediment control), 50, 103, 193, 347, and 711 mg total polyaromatic hydrocarbons (tPAH)/kg dry sediment. Juveniles were exposed through the reproductively active adult phase at measured concentrations of <1 (sediment control), 52, 109, 199, 358, and 751 mg tPAH/kg sediment. Throughout the exposure, fish were assessed for growth, survival, and reproduction. Resulting F1 embryos were then collected, incubated, and hatched in clean water to determine if parental full life-cycle exposure to oiled sediment produced trans-generational effects. Larvae experienced significantly reduced standard length (5-13% reduction) and wet weight (13-35% reduction) at concentrations at and above 50 and 103 mg tPAH/kg sediment, respectively. At 92 and 132 days post hatch (dph), standard length was reduced (7-13% reduction) at 199 and 109 mg tPAH/kg dry sediment, respectively, and wet weight for both time periods was reduced at concentrations at and above 109 mg tPAH/kg dry sediment (21-38% reduction). A significant reduction (51-65%) in F0 fecundity occurred at the two highest test concentrations, but no difference was observed in F1 embryo survival. This study is the first to report the effects of chronic laboratory exposure to oiled sediment, and will assist the development of population models for evaluating risk to benthic spawning fish species exposed to oiled sediments. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 31: 1627-1639, 2016.

The combined effect of Macondo oil and corexit on sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) during early development

“…This may lead to adverse fitness effects later in life including elevated frequency of mortality in larvae and juveniles (Incardona and Scholz, 2016). Similar to our results, a reduction in standard length of larvae was observed in sheepshead minnow exposed to Louisiana Crude Oil in a life cycle test, which persisted into juvenile and adult stages (Raimondo et al, 2016). A study on topsmelt (Atherinops affinis) exposed to Prudhoe Bay Crude Oil, either as water-accommodated fractions (WAF) or CEWAF, for 10 days showed similar adverse effects on standard length (Anderson et al, 2009).…”

Transgenerational effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure on sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus)

“…Although many studies have established the toxicity of hydrocarbons (individual or mixtures) on fish reproductive and developmental functions (Villeneuve et al ; Incardona et al ; Reynaud and Deschaux ; Dubansky et al ; Booc et al ; Brown‐Peterson et al ; Beyer et al ; Hedgpeth and Griffitt ; Raimondo et al ), few have investigated multi‐ or transgenerational effects. Furthermore, most generational studies use a chronic exposure across all generations tested, which may not be an environmentally relevant parallel to exposure during an oil spill when it is possible that only the parental generation (F 0 ) is exposed.…”

An embryonic staging series up to hatching for Cyprinodon variegatus: An emerging fish model for developmental, evolutionary, and ecological research

“…Research on Cyprinodon spans an array of disciplines including phylogenetic inferences of North American paleoenvironments (Echelle, ; Echelle et al, ) use as models to understand how organisms adapt and tolerate stressful environments (Naiman, Gerking, & Ratcliff, ; Naiman, Gerking, & Stuart, ; Plath & Strecker, ), as ecotoxicology models and biological indicators of estuarine health (Bowman, Kroll, Hemmer, Folmar, & Denslow, ; Raimondo et al, ), and as conservation models to understand the dynamics of small population size (Martin et al, ; Sağlam et al, ). Furthermore, evolutionary biologists study fishes in the genus Cyprinodon to understand the mating behavior (Kodric‐Brown, ; West & Kodric‐Brown, ), speciation and hybridization (Martin, ; Martin & Feinstein, ; McGirr & Martin, ; Richards & Martin, ; Rosenfield & Brown, ; Turner, Duvernell, Bunt, & Barton, ), and the role of developmental plasticity in morphological evolution (Lema, , , ).…”