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Population response of pale chub (Zacco platypus) exposed to wastewater effluents in Gap Stream

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Abstract

The effects of effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWTP) on population level responses of the pale chub (Zacco platypus), as sentinel species, were evaluated at four sites of the Gap Stream (GS) in June 2007. At GS 7.2 and GS 2.7, downstream of the municipal wastewater outfall, the response patterns of the pale chub population in the age at maturation were not changed; mean age, fecundity, and condition factor were increased; age distribution was shifted to older; growth rate was increased/or not changed; and the egg size and population size were decreased compared with reference site (GS 26.6). These observed responses of the pale chub population matched well with the characteristics expected from a fish population experiencing chronic recruitment failure, except for the decreased egg size due to the elevation in nutrients and pollutants by treated sewage discharge. The observed response pattern at the downstream sites might be caused by the deterioration of the spawning or nursery habitat, or by the contaminant-induced chronic spawning failures. Thus, these results suggest that the effluent of the MWTP might impact on the fish population structure and health status of pale chub population.

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  1. Environmental Research Center, Korea Institute of Toxicology, 305-343, Daejeon, Korea

    Ja-Hyun Kim & Dong-Hyuk Yeom

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Correspondence to Dong-Hyuk Yeom.

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Kim, JH., Yeom, DH. Population response of pale chub (Zacco platypus) exposed to wastewater effluents in Gap Stream. Toxicol. Environ. Health. Sci. 1, 169–175 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03216481

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