Fish biological effect monitoring of chemical stressors using a generalized linear model in South Sea, Korea

Abstract

The evaluation of the health status of the coastal ecosystem is an important task for marine environmental management. To determine the ‘‘good health status from chemical pollution’’ in coastal areas, a combination of multiple data sets from various organisms is needed. Marine ecosystems are complex and dynamic systems. Therefore, the interpretation of results derived from environmental monitoring based only on measurements at the ecosystem level is extremely difficult. Recently, biochemical markers including molecular, cellular and physiological measurements have been identified as powerful and cost-effective approaches to obtain information on the state of the environment and the effects of pollution on living biological resources. In this study, we evaluate fish health status with regard to chemical exposure in six different areas of the South Sea in Korea using biotransformation and neurotoxicity response enzymes. We measured induction of the hepatic cytochrome P-450 system and its catalytic activity indicated by EROD to evaluate the sub-lethal toxic effects of several organic contaminants, including the PAHs, coplanar or mono-ortho-substituted PCBs, and related compounds. We also confirmed the independence using a generalized linear model between the biochemical indices and the morphometric indices including the hepato-somatic index (HSI), gonado-somatic index (GSI), and condition factor (CF) in fish from th from various organisms is needed. Marine ecosystems are complex and dynamic systems. Therefore, the interpretation of results derived from environmental monitoring based only on measurements at the ecosystem level is extremely difficult. Recently, biochemical markers including molecular, cellular and physiological measurements have been identified as powerful and cost-effective approaches to obtain information on the state of the environment and the effects of pollution on living biological resources. In this study, we evaluate fish health status with regard to chemical exposure in six different areas of the South Sea in Korea using biotransformation and neurotoxicity response enzymes. We measured induction of the hepatic cytochrome P-450 system and its catalytic activity indicated by EROD to evaluate the sub-lethal toxic effects of several organic contaminants, including the PAHs, coplanar or mono-ortho-substituted PCBs, and related compounds. We also confirmed the independence using a generalized linear model between the biochemical indices and the morphometric indices including the hepato-somatic index (HSI), gonado-somatic index (GSI), and condition factor (CF) in fish from th