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(T/MF198) Usefulness of fish biomarkers in context of the Water Framework Directive. Flammarion, Patrick1, Garric, Jeanne1, 1 ABSTRACT- Along with conventional chemical analyses, biological assessment is useful for monitoring the exposure of aquatic organisms to contaminants as well as the effects of pollution at various levels of biological organisation. Some fish biochemical markers give information on the nature of the pollutants and may be useful early warning systems before irreversible ecological impact. Such biomarkers could be suitable biological parameters to include in the integrated programmes after the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. The example of the so-called EROD biomarker will be fully discussed. The EROD biomarker has been used in numerous, but spatially limited, field studies. In France, cyprinids (chub, Leuciscus cephalus) have been sampled in relatively clean and polluted areas for 5 years. A classification of the EROD levels was proposed through statistical analysis of the statistical characteristics of the EROD distributions. Reference baseline EROD was calculated considering type I (false positive) and type II (false negative) statistical error rates. The required monitoring frequency in a biomonitoring fish network was assessed. We also compared the EROD classes to the classes of indices based on fish and invertebrates communities as well as to classes of water and sediment chemical quality. We can now consider that the validity of the routine use of EROD biomarker in chub is established enough to implement it in the monitoring and the classification parameters within the Water Framework Directive. Key words: fish, biomarkers, biomonitoring, Water Framework Directive |
