Abstract
The stenoglossan prosobranch Hinia incrassata, collected along the coast of Brittany and Normandy between 1988 and 1997, exhibits imposex also known as pseudohermaphroditism (the occurrence of male parts in addition to the female genital system) in response to tributyltin (TBT) pollution. Excluding some normal females (stage 0), different imposex stages as defined by Fioroni et al. (1991a)(1a, 1b, 2a, 3a and 4) can be distinguished and have been documented for the first time using scanning electron micrographs. Additional malformations of the genital tract are described. Neither TBT-induced sterilization nor sex change occur in the analyzed samples. TBT accumulation in soft parts was analyzed and bioconcentration factors (BCF) were found to be between 4.68 · 10 4 and 1.22 · 10 5. The VDS (vas deferens sequence) index, RPL (relative penis length) index and the average female penis length (FPL) in populations exhibit a significant dependence on both TBT concentrations in ambient sea water and TBT body burden. An interspecific comparison between imposex intensities in sympatrically living populations of Hinia incrassata, Nucella lapillus and Hinia reticulata reveals that H. incrassata exhibits the lowest TBT sensitivity of the three species. But even in this relatively unsensitive species the threshold concentration for imposex development is below 1.5 ng TBT as Sn l −1. The VDS index is recommended as the most suited biological parameter for effect monitoring purposes because this index is characterized by the lowest deviation of data points from calculated concentration-effect-equations and shows no seasonal variations. Hinia incrassata is proposed for large large-scale TBT surveys in the Mediterranean being planned by OSPARCOM for the North Atlantic. Furthermore the species can be used for TBT temporal trend monitoring. Studies in France, for example, where TBT was partially banned in 1982, show little or no recovery from TBT contamination in H. incrassata and two other prosobranch species between 1989 and 1997.
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