Abstract:

Our goals were to identify integrated genomic, developmental, and physiological responses of marsh fishes to crude oil contamination. To accomplish our goals, we proposed a highly inter-disciplinary approach. We integrated biological measures from the molecular to physiological levels of effect with in situ and controlled laboratory exposures. With these biological measures of effect, we were able to pair the findings with analytical chemistry and remote sensing to characterize the nature, severity, and duration of exposure. Our first aim was to characterize the time-course of oil exposure effects in situ. We deployed genome-scale measures of gene expression, organ morphology, and cellular expression of contaminant-specific proteins on killifish caught directly from at-risk marshes. These analyses acted as sensitive biological indicators of oil exposure and toxic effects in fish, and will provide for measures of acclimation or potential recovery in oil-exposed fish populations. Our second aim was to test for oil exposure effects on sensitive early life stages. We exposed killifish embryos (derived from un-exposed adults) to field-collected waters to test for developmental effects of oil-contaminated water exposure that are expected to be predictive of long-term population-leve l impacts. Our third aim was to integrate the data from Aims 1 and 2 with in situ and remote sensing measures of exposure at relevant field sites. We used analytical chemistry to characterize the chemical content of weathered oil contaminating field sites, and remote sensing data to approximate the onset and duration of exposure at field sites.