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)