Aquatic macroinvertebrates under stress: Bioaccumulation of emerging contaminants and metabolomics implications

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2020-02, Vol.704, p.135333, Article 135333
• Main Authors: Previšić, Ana, Rožman, Marko, Mor, Jordi-René, Acuña, Vicenç, Serra-Compte, Albert, Petrović, Mira, Sabater, Sergi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Aquatic insects; Ecosystem; Endocrine Disruptors; Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs); Environmental Monitoring; Hydropsyche; In situ experiment; Invertebrates - metabolism; Metabolomics; Non-targeted metabolomics; Urban wastewater; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Waste Water; Water Pollutants, Chemical - metabolism
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135333

[Display omitted] •PhACs and EDCs were detected in water but only EDCs were measured in insects.•Bioaccumulation was temporary and strongly related to varying water concentrations.•Metabolite profile of insects was altered during the translocation experiment. The current knowledge on bioaccumulation of emerging contaminants (ECs) in aquatic invertebrates exposed to the realistic environmental concentrations is limited. Even less is known about the effects of chemical pollution exposure on the metabolome of aquatic invertebrates. We conducted an in situ translocation experiment with passive filter-feeding caddisfly larvae (Hydropsyche sp.) in an effluent-influenced river in order to i) unravel the bioaccumulation (and recovery) dynamics of ECs in aquatic invertebrates, and ii) test whether exposure to environmentally realistic concentrations of ECs will translate into metabolic profile changes in the insects. The experiment was carried out at two sites, upstream and downstream of the discharge of an urban wastewater treatment plant effluent. The translocated animals were collected at 2-week intervals for 46 days. Both pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) were detected in water (62 and 7 compounds, respectively), whereas in Hydropsyche tissues 5 EDCs accumulated. Overall, specimens from the upstream site translocated to the impacted site reached higher ECs concentrations in their tissues, as a reflection of the contaminants’ water concentrations. However, bioaccumulation was a temporary process susceptible to change under lower contaminant concentrations. Non-targeted metabolite profiling detected fine metabolic changes in translocated Hydropsyche larvae. Both translocations equally induced stress, but it was higher in animals translocated to the impacted site.