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Impact assessment of a large river on the sediments and fish from its continental shelf: using Solea solea as sentinel in the Ebro river mouth (NW Mediterranean, Spain)

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Abstract

Many studies have been carried out along mighty rivers with heavily industrialized watersheds to evaluate pollutants and their effects on freshwater organisms. However, their impact on marine organisms is virtually unknown. In order to cover this gap, Solea solea, one of the most important commercial fish species, together with sediments, were sampled during 2013–2015 offshore from the Ebro Delta river mouth. Fish health indicators (condition indices, histological tissue alterations, and parasite descriptors) were used to assess the potential effect of pollutants, an issue of particular interest in the area following the dredging activities taking place in the river upstream in 2013. No major histopathological alterations were detected, but perivascular inflammatory foci (PIF) were frequently observed, especially in 2014. The most prevalent and abundant parasites were acanthocephalans and digeneans within the digestive tract and copepods on the gills. Levels of trace metals from sediments and fish muscle were below the effects range median and reference levels accepted for human consumption, respectively. However, the lower levels of the hepatosomatic index, higher numbers of PIF, and variations in the abundance of parasites in 2014 and 2015 could suggest a pollutant exposure during these years. These results warn signs of toxicity, which could be associated with sediment leaks during the dredging activities.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff at the Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo- IEO (F. Schultze and M. López) for their help and collaboration in sample preparation and the staff of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (F. Padrós, S. Dallarés and D. Pérez-i-Garcia) and students of the Department of Animal Biology, Vegetal Biology and Ecology that helped during the campaigns and the laboratory work. Authors are also grateful to E. Carreras for critically reading the manuscript, for her suggestions and contributions to improve the discussion, and for the English revision of the manuscript.

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  1. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d’Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Maria Constenla, Anna Soler-Membrives & Maite Carrassón

  2. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Subida a Radio Faro, 50, 36390, Vigo, Spain

    Victoria Besada

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  1. Maria Constenla
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Contributions

MC1 conceived and designed the experiments, contributed to sample collection, performed the lab procedures, analyzed and interpreted the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper, and final approved the submitted version of the ms; AS-M contributed to sample collection, analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper, and final approved the submitted version of the ms; VB performed the lab procedures, analyzed the data, reviewed drafts of the paper, and final approved the submitted version of the ms; and MC2 analyzed and interpreted the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper, and final approved the submitted version of the ms.

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Correspondence to Maria Constenla.

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Constenla, M., Soler-Membrives, A., Besada, V. et al. Impact assessment of a large river on the sediments and fish from its continental shelf: using Solea solea as sentinel in the Ebro river mouth (NW Mediterranean, Spain). Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 15713–15728 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16408-7

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