Biomarkers environmental indicators

Volume 50—BIOMONITORS AND BIOMARKERS AS INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE A Handbook... 

Wessels, D., D.B. Barr, and P. Mendola. 2003. Use of biomarkers to indicate exposure of children to organophosphate pesticides Implications for a longitudinal study of children s environmental health. Environ. Health Perspect. 111(16) 1939-1946. 

Ma, Te-Hsiu, 1995, Trandescantia (spiderwort) plants as biomonitors of the genotoxicity of environmental pollutants. In Biomonitors and Biomarkers as Indicators of Environmental Change, edited by F. M. Butterworth et al., 207-216. New York Plenum Press,... 

Bltibaum-Gronau E., Hoffmann M., Spieser O.H. and Scholz W., 2001. Continuous water monitoring. In Biomonitors and Biomarkers as Indicators of Environmental Change 2 A Handbook, F.M. Butterworth, M.E. Gonsebatt-Bonaparte and A Gunatilaka (eds), Kluwer/Plenum, New York, pp. 123-41. 

Exposure. Known biomarkers of exposure to endosulfan include the measurement of endosulfan or its metabolites in tissue and excreta (Deema et al. 1966 Dorough et al. 1978 Gorbach et al. 1968) these measurements can indicate whether absorption of endosulfan has occurred. The presence of the parent compound and its metabolites are specific biomarkers for endosulfan exposure. However, no studies are available that quantify the concentrations of endosulfan or its metabolites in relation to specific environmental exposure levels. Since endosulfan induces cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenases... 

Biotic indices that are relatively simple and inexpensive to apply can be very useful for identifying environmental problems caused by pollutants. Serious effects of pollutants can cause departures from normal profiles. The problem is, however, identifying which pollutants—or which other enviromnental factors—are responsible for significant departures from normality. This dilemma illustrates well the importance of having both a top-down and a bottom-up approach to pollution problems in the field. Chemical analysis and biomarker assays can be used to identify chemicals responsible for adverse changes in communities detected by the use of biotic indices. 

Apart from the use of this approach to study the ecotoxicology of neurotoxic pollutants in the field, it also has potential for use during the course of environmental risk assessment. An understanding of the relationship between biomarker responses to neurotoxic compounds and effects at the population level can be gained from both field studies and the use of mesocosms and other model systems. From these it may be possible to define critical thresholds in biomarker responses of indicator species above which population effects begin to appear. In the longer term, this approach... 

Damasio J, Tauler R, Teixido E, Rieradevall M, Prat N, Riva MC, Soares AMVM, Barata C (2008) Combined use of Daphnia magna in situ bioassays, biomarkers and biological indices to diagnose and identify environmental pressures on invertebrate communities in two Mediterranean urbanized and industrialized rivers (NE Spain). Aquat Toxicol 87 (4) 310-320... 

NOMIRACLE (2004-2009, http //viso.jrc.it/nomiracle/) provided support to the development and improvement of a coherent series of methodologies underpinned by mechanistic understanding, while integrating the risk analysis approaches of environmental and human health. The project delivered understanding of and tools for sound risk assessment, developing a research framework for the description and interpretation of combined stressor effects that leads to the identification of biomarkers and other indicators of cumulative impacts. 

In view of these complexities, environmental studies that seek to verify proposed cause-effect relationships between contamination and response need to be carefully designed to avoid bias and misunderstanding. Most environmental assessments adopt a multi-tiered approach to testing, in which combinations of biological responses (biomarkers) are measured in tissue samples, body fluids or at the whole organism level to indicate exposure to or adverse effects of contamination.8. Auffret and colleagues60 surveyed Pacific oysters from the Atlantic coast of Brittany after the Erika oil spill between... 

Because of their specificity for particular bacterial groups and environmental conditions, they make excellent biomarkers. Another steroidal biomarker is gammacerane (Figure 22.19b), which has six six-membered carbon rings. It is used as an indicator of water-column stratification in marine and lacustrine deposits. 

Farombi, E.O., O.A. Adelowo, and Y.R. Ajimoko. 2007. Biomarkers of oxidative stress and heavy metal levels as indicators of environmental pollution in African cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) from Nigeria Ogun River. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 4 158-165. 

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