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Toxicity of sediment cores from Yangtze River estuary to zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos

  • Danio rerio as a Model in Aquatic Toxicology and Sediment Research
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Abstract

Toxicity evaluation is an important segment in sediment quality monitoring in order to protect aquatic organisms and human health. The purpose of this study is to assess the toxicity of sediments from three sediment cores in Yangtze River Estuary, China, using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo tests. Fertilized zebrafish eggs were exposed to both whole sediments and sediment organic extracts prepared from collected sediments, in order to provide a comprehensive and realistic insight into the bioavailable toxicity potential of the sediments. As end points, development parameters (mortality, hatching rate, and abnormality) in the developing embryos were recorded during the 96-h exposure. The results showed that some samples increased mortality, inhibited the hatching of embryos, and induced morphological abnormalities. The embryonic toxicities presented serrated changes and irregular distribution with depth, which may be related to hydrodynamic effect and unstable environmental input. However, lethal and sub-lethal effects were more significant at the sub-surface sediments (10∼40 cm), which indicated that the pollution is more serious in recent decades.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41101499) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. 0400219213).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 200092

    Peipei Wang, Lili Zhang, Li Liu, Ling Chen, Hongwen Gao & Lingling Wu

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  1. Peipei Wang
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  2. Lili Zhang
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  4. Ling Chen
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Correspondence to Lingling Wu.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Wang, P., Zhang, L., Liu, L. et al. Toxicity of sediment cores from Yangtze River estuary to zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 16423–16433 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3484-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3484-5

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