Impacts of Petroleum Fuels on Fertilization and Development of the Antarctic Sea Urchin Sterechinus neumayeri

Abstract

Antarctic marine environments are at risk from petroleum fuel spills as shipping activities in the Southern Ocean increase. Knowledge of the sensitivity of Antarctic species to fuels under environmentally realistic exposure conditions is lacking. We determined the toxicity of 3 fuels, Special Antarctic Blend diesel (SAB), marine gas oil (MGO), and intermediate fuel oil (IFO 180) to a common Antarctic sea urchin, Sterechinus neumayeri. Sensitivity was estimated for early developmental stages from fertilization to the early 4-arm pluteus in toxicity tests of up to 24 d duration. The effects of the water accommodated fractions (WAFs) of fuels were investigated under different exposure scenarios to determine the relative sensitivity of stages and of different exposure regimes. Sensitivity to fuel WAFs increased through development. Both MGO and IFO 180 were more toxic than SAB, with median effect concentration values for the most sensitive pluteus stage of 3.5, 6.5, and 252 µg/L total hydrocarbon content, respectively. Exposure to a single pulse during fertilization and early embryonic development showed toxicity patterns similar to those observed from continuous exposure. The results show that exposure to fuel WAFs during critical early life stages affects the subsequent viability of larvae, with consequent implications for reproductive success. The sensitivity estimates for S. neumayeri that we generated can be utilized in risk assessments for the management of Antarctic marine ecosystems.

The Structure and Function of Gut Microbiomes of Two Species of Sea Urchins, Mesocentrotus nudus and Strongylocentrotus intermedius, in Japan

“…Sea urchin has been used for over a hundred years as a model organism in developmental biology research (Wilson, 1895). Knowledge of sea urchins in the field of biology has expanded to include (1) the effects of toxic substances on their immune system, reproduction, and development (Nobre et al, 2015;Brown et al, 2020;Pikula et al, 2020;Rendell-Bhatti et al, 2021), (2) the gene expression involved in sea urchin fertilization and development stages (Li et al, 2020;Wessel et al, 2021;Cui et al, 2022), (3) the nervous system (Wood et al, 2018;Martín-Durán and Hejnol, 2021;Formery et al, 2021), and (4) sea urchin genomes (Sodergren et al, 2006;Kudtarkar and Cameron, 2017;Kinjo et al, 2018;Warner et al, 2021). Sea urchins have also been studied in various aspects related to the impact of current changing environments, such as ocean acidification and global warming to their development and growth (Dworjanyn and Byrne, 2018;García et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2018;Houlihan et al, 2020).…”

Statistical Optimisation of Diesel Biodegradation at Low Temperatures by an Antarctic Marine Bacterial Consortium Isolated from Non-Contaminated Seawater

“…Such consortia can offer more diverse catabolic genes and their synergistic effects may be beneficial in achieving more efficient mineralisation of pollutants [35]. Consortia have yielded better results in both aliphatic and polyaromatic chain hydrocarbon degradation [36], and have also increasingly addressed the population dynamics of Antarctic marine microbial communities under exposure to hydrocarbons [4,[37][38][39]. However, there remains a lack of consortium studies based on the native microbiota of Antarctic seawater, despite some of the largest Antarctic hydrocarbon pollution events taking place in the marine environment [16].…”