Water quality of the Meuse watershed: Assessment using a multi-biomarker approach with caged three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.)

Interest of a multispecies approach in active biomonitoring: Application in the Meuse watershed

“…In September 2018, adult three-spined sticklebacks (1-year-old; 4.40 ± 0.45 cm ; 1.07 ± 0.34 g) were caged upstream (2 cages) and downstream (2 cages) from the WWTPs at a rate of 30 fishes in each studied site (15 fish / cages) during 21 days. Cages used were cylindrical stainless steel tanks of 630mm high, 270mm diameter (volume = 36L) and 5mm mesh (Catteau et al, 2021).…”

“…The protocols for biological samples recovery and biomarker analysis in the three-spined stickleback were presented in detail in Catteau et al (2020Catteau et al ( , 2021.…”

“…All biomarker analyses were performed on individual fish and are described in previous cited studies (Catteau et al, 2021(Catteau et al, , 2020.…”

“…This euryhaline species was found to be resistant to pollution and easy to handle and maintain in breeding. This species is thus increasingly used in active biomonitoring studies (Catteau et al, 2021(Catteau et al, , 2020Le Guernic et al, 2016) and emerged as a new species of interest. Finally, the bryophyte F. antipyretica is the most widely used aquatic plant for biomonitoring.…”

“…During the study, several water samples were taken upstream and downstream from the WWTP effluents to carry out chemical analyses. Results for the 45 compounds monitored are available in Catteau et al (2021) and Hani et al (2021). These data were used to summarize the global contamination by pharmaceuticals and domestic tracers in each site (Table 1).…”