Valimar (Summary)
AIM OF THE PROJECT:
- Evaluation of effects of environmental stressors such as contaminants on the health of aquatic organisms including fish and invertebrates.
- Validation of biomarker responses with respect of their sensitivity and specifity to indicate environmental pollution.
- Understanding response patterns of biomarkers representative of different levels of biological organization.
- Understanding the dynamics of the stress response curves and the effects of temperature and other confounding factors on biomarker responses.
- Evaluation of the ecological value of biomarker responses.
WHAT´S GOING ON ?
- Biomarkers are simultanously applied over several years to brown trout (Salmo trutta f. fario) and loach (Barbatula barbatula) exposed in flow-through systems ("bypass-systems") to the water of two model streams in Germany (Körsch and Krähenbach).
- Selected markers are investigated also in snail, crayfish and leech.
APPLIED BIOMARKERS:
- Stress Proteins (Köhler, Tübingen)
- Biotransformation enzymes (Segner, Leipzig)
- Metabolic enzymes (Braunbeck, Heidelberg)
- Ultrastructure of selected organs - liver, kidney and gill (Triebskorn, Tübingen)
- Histopathology and parasites (Schwaiger, Munich)
- Swimming behavior (Triebskorn, Tübingen)
Results obtained under these semi-field conditions are compared with biomarker responses in fish caught directly in the streams.
SUBPROJECTS NOT DEALING WITH BIOMARKERS:
- Chemical analyses in water, sediment, fish, dust, sewage plant effluxes (Honnen, Reutlingen)
- Limnological investigations (Triebskorn, Tübingen)
- In vitro tests with fish cell culture (Braunbeck, Heidelberg)
- Bioluminiscence tests (Honnen, Reutlingen)
- Embryo-larval tests (Oberemm, Berlin)
- Nematode tests (Traunspurger, Bielefeld)
- Studies on fish population and invertebrate community in the model streams (Böhmer, Hohenheim)
- Ecomorphological investigations (Lehmann, Weilheim)
- Multivariate analyses of results and modelling (Schüürmann, Leipzig)