Book Description
This a report of activities performed under a collaborative agreement between the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research (USACEHR) and the University of Maryland Aquatic pathobiology Center (UM APC) These activities support the USACEHR. and their US EPA EMPACT project entitled "Real Time Monitoring for toxicity Caused by Harmful Algal Blooms and Other Water Quality Perturbations." The overall objective of the USACEH APC collaborative was to test a biomonitoring system with sentinel fish under laboratory conditions, with exposures to temperature fluctuation, hypoxia, and a harmful algal bloom toxin, brevetoxin. We also developed a 14C-labeled 2-deoxyglucose autoradiography method to examine changes in central nervous system activity, and conducted pathological examinations, in fish exposed to brevetoxin. In the temperature fluctuation experiment, each daily 5C rise in temperature was associated with minor elevations in ventilatory rate and depressions in ventilatory depth. Fish exposed to hypoxia showed temporal elevations in "R with minor associated depressions in ventilatory depth, and elevations in cough rate. In a l9C brevetoxin experiment (49microng/L), fish responded with a minor temporal elevation in ventilatory rate and a suppression of ventilatory depth. In a 25C brevetoxin experiment 53microng/L, there was also a minor elevated spike in VR. However, there was also a major elevated spike in cough rate and percent movement. The brains of fish exposed to 49microng brevetoxin showed notably higher incorporation of 2-deoxyglucose compared with control and vehicle fish. Histopathological observations indicated no significant difference between control fish and brevetoxin exposed fish. Outreach for this project has been in the form of poster presentations at two well-recognized scientific meetings, and a website (http://aqpuaticpath.umd.edu/empact) developed and maintained by the UM Aquatic Pathology Center.