You are here:
In Situ Field-Based Metabolomics for Evaluating the Impacts of Exposure to Chemicals of Emerging Concern Relative to Other Stressors
Citation:
Collette, Tim, J. Davis, J. Beihoffer, A. Jastrow, K. Keteles, AND D. Ekman. In Situ Field-Based Metabolomics for Evaluating the Impacts of Exposure to Chemicals of Emerging Concern Relative to Other Stressors. SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, November 01 - 06, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at SETAC North America 2015.
Description:
Significant attention is being devoted to the potential impacts on ecosystems from exposure to chemicals of emerging concern (CECs; including pharmaceuticals, personal-care products, etc.). Many of these are persistent, distributed globally, and have been shown to cause adverse impacts on aquatic organisms. However, it is unclear what contributions CECs make to overall impacts on biota relative to other stressors that are present in the water column or in sediment. For example, many legacy contaminants such as organochlorine pesticides and heavy metals persist in the environment and are considerably toxic. In addition, biota suffer adverse impacts that are not direct toxic effects from exposure to a specific chemical (e.g., effects from abnormal pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen). An approach that could tentatively rank relative impacts of various stressors (e.g., CECs vs legacy contaminants, or one type of CEC vs another type) would be a welcomed addition to the arsenal of tools available for environmental regulators, helping to inform toxicity testing and monitoring programs, and remediation activities. We have proposed that the coupling of conventional chemical (and water quality) analysis with in situ field-based metabolomics may represent a useful approach for providing this information. Specifically, for the case of chemical pollutants, we have predicted that anthropogenic chemicals whose abundances co-vary with changes in endogenous metabolite profiles would be more likely related to adverse biological impacts than those chemicals that did not co-vary. Here, we will present results from a field study that addressed this proposal. Specifically, fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were cage-deployed in the South Platte River, CO below two WWTPs, and also at a reference site. Chemical and water-quality analyses were conducted along with endogenous metabolite profiling of liver extracts via NMR spectroscopy. We will present results from this study as a proof-of-concept for a partial least squares regression method for prioritizing the impact of CECs and other stressors in aquatic ecosystems, based on their extent of co-variance with biological impacts, as measured by metabolomic endpoints.
