Lethal and sublethal effects of metal-polluted sediments on Chironomus sancticaroli Strixino and Strixino, 1981

Abstract

The Cantareira Complex is one of the most important water supplies of the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil. Previously, it was demonstrated that the sediments in this complex were polluted with metals and that Paiva Castro Reservoir-the last reservoir in the sequence, which receives water from the five previous reservoirs-was the reservoir with the greatest concentration of pollutants. Based on field data, it was noticed that copper concentrations in sediments were related to morphological alterations in chironomids. The present study provides novel monitoring methods and results for the complex by isolating the environmental and biological sources of variation. An adaptation of the in situ assay proposed by Soares et al. (Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 49:163-172, 2005), which uses a native tropical Chironomus species and low-cost materials, is also provided. The aim of this study was to isolate the effects of sediments from Paiva Castro on controlled populations of C. sancticaroli larvae using an in situ assay. A seven-day experiment was performed in triplicate. Third instar larvae were inoculated in chambers containing sediments from two distinct regions of Paiva Castro reservoir and a control site with sand. Five biological responses were considered: mouthpart alterations, larval length, width of cephalic capsule, mortality and total damage. The results suggest the effects of sediment toxicity on larvae include a reduction in length and a higher occurrence of total damage.

Extremely Acidic Eukaryotic (Micro) Organisms: Life in Acid Mine Drainage Polluted Environments—Mini-Review

“…At the cytological level, genotoxic damage produces micronuclei in the structure of salivary gland chromosomes of larvae of Chironomus acidophilus in a river with high concentrations of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn [ 112 ]. At the organism level, cause–effect relationships between morphological abnormalities such as deformities of the mouthparts and metal-rich stream sediments have been demonstrated in both, laboratory [ 113 , 114 ] and field [ 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 ]. This was the case for Chironomus tentans larvae, where fused, split, missing, extra and abnormally-shaped teeth on the mandible were associated with different metal levels [ 119 ].…”

Linking ecological health to co-occurring organic and inorganic chemical stressors in a groundwater-fed stream system

“…Further research is still needed to separate whether impact is driven by a combined (e.g. cumulative) effect of organic (Houde et al, 2015) and inorganic stressors (de Souza Beghelli et al, 2018) impacting the ecological communities, or whether the conditionswhen present simultaneously -are responsible for enabling a specific chemical stressor's availability (e.g.…”

Genotoxic effect of heavy metals on Astyanax lacustris in an urban stream

“…In this sense, biomonitoring is a crucial tool to assess the consequences of aquatic fauna exposure to xenobiotics. In bioassays, many organisms can be used, ranging from bacteria, plants ( Kračun-Kolarević et al., 2016 ), mollusks ( Khan et al., 2018 ), insects ( Beghelli et al., 2018 ), to fish ( Souza et al., 2019 ). Among those groups, fish is the most used model to estimate the risks to the aquatic environment.…”