Identifying major pesticides affecting bivalve species exposed to agricultural pollution using multi-biomarker and multivariate methods Joana Dama ´sio • Alı ´cia Navarro-Ortega • Roma ` Tauler • Silvia Lacorte • Damia ` Barcelo ´ • Amadeu M. V. M. Soares • Miguel Angel Lo ´pez • Mari Carmen Riva • Carlos Barata Accepted: 20 March 2010 / Published online: 6 April 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract The aim of this investigation was to identify major pesticides that may cause detrimental effects in bivalve species affected by agricultural pollution. Investi- gations were carried out using freshwater clams (Corbicula fluminea) transplanted in the main drainage channels that collect the effluents coming from agriculture fields in the Ebro Delta (NE Spain) during the main growing season of rice (from May to August). Environmental hazards were assessed by measuring simultaneous up 46 contaminant levels and 9 biomarker responses. Measured biological responses showed marked differences across sites and months. Antioxidant and esterase enzyme responses were in most cases inhibited. Lipid peroxidation levels increased steadily from May in upstream stations to August in drainage channels. Principal Component (PCA) and Partial Least Squares to Latent Structure regression (PLS) analyses allowed the identification of endosulfan, propanil, and phenylureas as being the chemical contaminants causing the most adverse effects in the studied species. Keywords Pesticide Á Mussel Á Corbicula fluminea Á Biomarker Á Oxidative stress Á Cholinesterase Introduction The simultaneous use of wetlands and bays for agriculture and mariculture production, respectively, is a common phenomenon (Feldman et al. 2000). Under this scenario shellfish species inhabiting or cultured in the bays may become increasingly threatened by exposure to pollutants associated to agriculture (Feldman et al. 2000). Among the available techniques to measure effects, the integrated use of chemical analyses and biochemical and cellular responses to pollutants is a sound procedure for detecting impact of anthropogenic contaminants in freshwater and marine systems. Moreover, since in real field situations aquatic organisms are currently being exposed to multiple chemical and environmental stressors with different mechanisms of toxicity, each contributing to a final overall adverse effect, the use of a large set of biochemical responses may allow us to identify contaminants that might be hazardous in the field. This approach has been suc- cessfully used in studying bivalve marine mollusks (Liv- ingstone 2001) and include biochemical responses that are related to the metabolism and toxicity modes of action of contaminants. Most pesticides currently used in developed countries have low environmental persistence, do not accumulate in great amounts in organisms, and suffer a strong dilution in coastal areas (Santos et al. 2000). Therefore, coastal Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10646-010-0490-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. J. Dama ´sio Á A. Navarro-Ortega Á R. Tauler Á S. Lacorte Á D. Barcelo ´ Á C. Barata (&) Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Jordi Girona 18, 08034 Barcelona, Spain e-mail: cbmqam@cid.csic.es J. Dama ´sio Á A. M. V. M. Soares CESAM & Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal M. A. Lo ´pez Forestal Catalana, Environmental Agency, Generalitat de Catalunya, Sabino Arana 34, 08028 Barcelona, Spain M. C. Riva Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, CRIT-UPC, CN 150 km 14.5, 08220 Terrassa, Spain 123 Ecotoxicology (2010) 19:1084–1094 DOI 10.1007/s10646-010-0490-3 PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com