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(88-01) CITYFISH - Ecotoxicological factors limiting the restoration of fish populations in urban rivers. Taylor, Ted*,1, 1 School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. ABSTRACT- This project encompasses the physico-chemical and ecological quality of urban rivers in 4 European cities, Birmingham, Milan, Berlin and Amsterdam and relates it to the population biology, biochemical and physiological status of chosen fish species. In the UK and Italy the study sites are on small, fast flowing rivers and the chosen fish is the chub, Leuciscus cephalus. In the Netherlands and Germany the rivers are large and heavily engineered and the chosen fish is the bream, Abramis brama. The central theme is the relationship between the swimming performance of fish and their accumulation of biomarkers of chronic exposure to sublethal levels of a range of anthropogenic factors in their environment. Biomarkers include: DNA adducts and strand breaks, plasma vitellogenin, expression of cytochrome CYP450, connexins and metallothionein, assay of antioxidant and choline esterase activity. Studies are being conducted on feral fish and on fish taken from clean sites then exposed for 4 weeks in cages at the study sites. Swimming performance is being measured on these fish, at the study sites, using a purpose built, portable flume. Tissues are then harvested for measurement of biomarkers. Preliminary data indicate a correlation between swimming performance and the accumulation of CYP450 and metallothioneins in summer fish from the Lambro river, Milan. This project is funded by the European Commission under their Environment and Sustainable Development Programme (project code EVK1-1999-00041). Detailed descriptions of our work will be available as posters in this session. Key words: fish swimming, biomarkers, urban rivers, ecotoxicology |
