Abstract
BackgroundFresh water bodies represent less than 1% of overall amount of water on earth and ensuring their quality and sustainability is pivotal. Although several campaigns have been performed to monitor the occurrence of micropollutants by means of chemical analysis, this might not cover the whole set of chemicals present in the sample nor the potential toxic effects of mixtures of natural and anthropogenic chemicals. In this sense, by selecting relevant toxicity endpoints when performing in vitro bioanalysis, effect-based methodologies can be of help to perform a comprehensive assessment of water quality and reveal biological activities relevant to adverse health effects. However, no prior bioanalytical study was performed in wetland water samples from the Spanish Mediterranean coastline.MethodsEleven samples from relevant water bodies from the Spanish Mediterranean coastline were collected to monitor water quality on 8 toxicity endpoints. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), androgenicity (AR+ and AR−), estrogenicity (ER+ and ER−), oxidative stress response (Nrf2) and vitamin D receptor (VDR+ and VDR−) reporter gene assays were evaluated.ResultsAhR was the reporter gene assay showing a more frequent response over the set of samples (activated by 9 out of 11 samples), with TCDD-eq in the range 7.7–22.2 pM. For AR, ER and VDR assays sporadic activations were observed. Moreover, no activity was observed on the Nrf2 reporter gene assay. Wastewater and street runaway streams from Valencia could be responsible for enhanced activities in one of the water inputs in the Natural Park ‘L’Albufera’.ConclusionsWater quality of relevant wetlands from the Spanish Mediterranean coastline has been evaluated. The utilization of a panel of 5 different bioassays to cover for different toxicity endpoints has demonstrated to be a good tool to assess water quality.
Highlights
The International Convention on Wetlands estimates that surface water bodies such as lakes, rivers, marshlands, estuaries and aquifers serve as natural reservoir for the majority of available freshwater worldwide
It was decided to use the 4 concentrations tested (REFs 25, 12.5, 6.3 and 3.1) to assess the bioactivity of wetland samples in all cell lines, paying special attention to results obtained for CL8 at the highest relative enrichment factor (REF) value tested
A panel of 8 toxicity endpoints has been evaluated for a set of 11 surface water samples from environmentally relevant water bodies from the Spanish Mediterranean coastline
Summary
The International Convention on Wetlands estimates that surface water bodies such as lakes, rivers, marshlands, estuaries and aquifers serve as natural reservoir for the majority of available freshwater worldwide. No information is provided on potential toxic effects of mixtures of natural and anthropogenic chemicals [10, 11] In this sense, effect-based methodologies can be of help by revealing biological activities that could be relevant to adverse effects in freshwater organisms [11,12,13]. Several campaigns have been performed to monitor the occurrence of micropollutants by means of chemical analysis, this might not cover the whole set of chemicals present in the sample nor the potential toxic effects of mixtures of natural and anthropogenic chemicals In this sense, by selecting relevant toxicity endpoints when performing in vitro bioanalysis, effect-based methodologies can be of help to perform a comprehensive assessment of water quality and reveal biological activities relevant to adverse health effects. No prior bioanalytical study was performed in wetland water samples from the Spanish Mediterranean coastline
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