Abstract
It is well known in aquaculture that hyperthermic perturbations may cause skeleton malformations in fish, but this phenomenon has rarely been documented in wild species. One rare location where thermal pollution has increased the proportion of malformed fish in wild population is in the waters near the Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Taiwan. At this site, the threshold temperature and critical exposure time for inducing deformations have not been previously determined. In addition, it was unclear whether juvenile fish with thermal-induced malformations are able to recover when the temperature returns below the threshold. In the present study, juvenile largescale mullet (Planiliza macrolepis) were kept at temperatures ranging from 26°C and 36°C for 1–4 weeks, after which malformed fish were maintained at a preferred temperature of 26°C for another 8 weeks. The vertebrae bending index (VBI) of fish was increased after 2 weeks at 36°C, and deformed vertebral columns were detected by radiography after 4 weeks. However, malformations were not observed in groups kept at or below 34°C. Moreover, at the end of the recovery period, both the VBI and the vertebrae malformations had returned to normal. The results of this study may help to more precisely determine potential environmental impacts of thermal pollution and raise the possibility that the capacity for fish vertebrae to recover from the impacts of chronic thermal exposures may be an important consideration in marine fish conservation.
Highlights
Human activities often create a large amount of waste that is discharged into nearby water bodies, where it affects resident organisms
In Experiment 2, the standard length of fish that were continuously exposed to 36 ̊C was lower than 26 ̊C controls, but the length of the fish that were switched from 36 ̊C to 26 ̊C showed no difference compared to the controls (Table 2)
Deformations were found in 0.5% of star snapper (Lutjanus stellatus) and 0.4% of Russell’s snapper (L. russelli) in populations found off the coast of Miyazaki, Japan [19]
Summary
Human activities often create a large amount of waste that is discharged into nearby water bodies, where it affects resident organisms. Physiological responses to thermal stress have been found in several fishes, including the two-banded seabream (Diplodus vulgaris), white seabream (Diplodus sargus), European bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), Black goby (Gobius niger) and thinlip mullet (Liza ramada). In these species, both oxidative stress biomarkers and thermal stress biomarkers were increased in response to raised temperatures [3]. The effects of thermal perturbations are well known in the aquaculture industry; the long-term effects of thermal pollution on wild fish populations have been scarcely documented
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