Biomonitoring of Effects Following Exposure of Fish to Sugar Refinery Effluent

Tugiyono Tugiyono,Nuning Nurcahyani,Sutopo Hadi,R Supriyanto

doi:10.5539/mas.v5n5p39

Abstract

Biomarker is the newest concept in environmental biomonitoring. One of the key functions of biomarker is to provide an early warning signal of significant biological effects. The objective of this research was to determine biomarker as a water quality monitoring tool on the waste water treatment plant (WWTP). The experiment was conducted at waste water treatment plant ponds (WWTPs) of a sugar refinery by growing Nile tilapia in floating net cages for 60 days. Results show that CF and LSI decreased in all WWTP whereas the GSI value in first and second aeration ponds increased compared to the control fish. The SDH enzyme activity significantly increased in the first aeration and monitoring ponds compared to those of the other ponds. The most severe hyperemia in hepatic cells occurred in the first and second aeration ponds. The highest value of SGR and SR was observed in stabilization pond.

Highlights

Changes in environmental quality can be identified based on changes in selected biological parameters
It is observed that the value of Survival rate (SR) of all waste water treatment plant (WWTP) ponds is significantly higher compared to those of control (Table 1)
These results indicated that the water conditions in the WWTP will successfully support fish life

Summary

Introduction

Changes in environmental quality can be identified based on changes in selected biological parameters This approach in biomonitoring uses living organisms to monitor changes in biochemistry, physiology, morphology, and organism behavior instead of traditional approaches using community structure measures like abundance and diversity indices. Biomonitoring uses tools known as biochemical markers (biomarkers) to anticipate the impacts of pollution at the cellular and tissue level through to the level of population structure (Lam and Wu, 2003). A biomarker measures a biological response to chemical substances in the environment to give a measure of exposure and sometimes, of toxic effect (Walker et al, 1996). Biomarkers are the most-up-to-date tools used to estimate the impact of chronic exposure to specific or non-specific chemicals in the environment (Jørgensen, 1997). Histopathology of the liver of the fish was assessed to confirm the biomarker results

Fish Culture

Growth and Survival rates

Physiological Indices

Histology

Analysis of Water Quality

Conclusion