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LABORATORY AND FIELD STUDIES TO EVALUATE RISKS TO LARVAL FISH FROM PHOTO-ACTIVATED TOXICITY OF PAHS
Citation:
Mount, D. R., S A. Diamond, R J. Erickson, L J. Heinis, T L. Highland, C. T. Jenson, AND V R. Mattson. LABORATORY AND FIELD STUDIES TO EVALUATE RISKS TO LARVAL FISH FROM PHOTO-ACTIVATED TOXICITY OF PAHS. Presented at SETAC Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, November 9-13, 2003.
Description:
Hazard from photo-activation of PAHs has been well documented in aquatic organisms. Far less certain is the degree to which risk actually occurs in the field. This presentation outlines a series of laboratory and field experiments conducted to better understand the dosimetry and effects of simultaneous UV and PAH exposure in early life stages of fathead minnows. Fathead larva and fry were chosen as experimental organisms because of their suspected sensitivity to photo-activated toxicity and their potentially high UV exposure in the field. --- Simultaneous exposure to waterborne pyrene and artificially-produced UV showed mortality occurring in an exposure dependent manner during initial exposure to UV, but diminishing greatly after 48 hours of exposure. Whether this is related to changes in lifestage sensitivity, changes in body burden of PAHs, or the initiation of damage repair mechanisms is not yet clear. Growth of larval fish was also affected by UV/PAH exposure, but primarily at exposures at or near those causing outright mortality. Similar experiments wre conducted in the field, exposing larval fish to ambient sunlight and water at a PAH-contaminated site. Mortalities were observed only at the highest levels of sunlight exposure and occurred predominately early in the exposure, a pattern very similar to that observed in lab studies. We discuss these findings in the context of assessing risk from photo-activation at PAH-contaminated sites.