Ecotoxicological implications of hydrogen peroxide environmental discharge on marine invertebrate organisms

化学污染物可通过各种来源进入沿海海洋系统，包括通过废水系统排放、土地径流和沿海工业活动，如水产养殖。沿海海洋环境中的生物暴露在广泛的污染物和污染物中，了解暴露的毒理效应机制对于评估对人口和生态系统的潜在长期影响至关重要。该项目旨在重点关注苏格兰沿海环境中目前相关的主要污染物，例如废水处理或沿海水产养殖等工业活动进入海洋环境的污染物。在过去的20年里，苏格兰的鲑鱼养殖业迅速增长，有明确的迹象表明，投资和增长将在未来几年继续下去。过氧化氢将是主要的目标污染物，因为它用作海底结构的生物污垢处理和海洋鲑鱼养殖设施中海豹的化学处理。由于海胆和贻贝作为底栖有害食肉动物和滤食者的生态作用，以及它们作为潜在目标渔业的经济价值，将特别注重对它们的影响。苏格兰目前有兴趣发展综合多营养水产养殖(IMTA)，以实现水产养殖业的可持续、高效和生产性发展，海胆和贻贝都被考虑在IMTA系统中进行开发。由于贻贝水产养殖业的高产和增长，贻贝在苏格兰西海岸引起了额外的兴趣。贻贝养殖场与鲑鱼养殖场位于同一海湖系统中；因此，了解无意中暴露于鲑鱼养殖场化学排放的毒理学影响是特别有意义的。由于环境中的快速反应和分解，以及一些替代化学处理方案(如埃维菌素)明显的生物积累，过氧化氢海豹处理正被更频繁地使用。过氧化氢会产生活性氧物种，并会导致组织中的氧化损伤，包括DNA链断裂。有报道称，挪威鲑鱼养殖场附近的甲壳类(虾)种群存在非靶标效应。尚不清楚处理沿海鲑鱼水产养殖设施所产生的浓度和环境暴露如何以及在多大程度上影响周围水中的生物。海胆和贻贝都是生态毒理学研究中公认的模式生物，完全测序和注释的基因组为研究提供了遗传和分子工具，在具有良好特征的生理、行为和繁殖的背景下。它们被广泛用作水环境污染物存在的生物指示剂，生物标记物分析得到了很好的描述和优化。科学方法将是调查与环境有关的海胆和贻贝暴露在过氧化氢中的毒理效应。这些实验将描述生殖和发育毒性，并涉及成虫和幼虫的暴露。

Chemical contaminants can enter coastal marine systems by various sources including discharge through waste water systems, land run-off, and coastal industrial activities such as aquaculture. Organisms in the coastal marine environment are exposed to a wide range of pollutants and contaminants, and understanding mechanisms of toxicological effects of exposure is essential for assessing potential long-term impacts on populations and ecosystems. This project seeks to focus on key contaminants of current relevance in Scottish coastal environment, for example contaminants entering the marine environment from waste water treatments or industrial activities such as coastal aquaculture. Salmon farming has seen a rapid increase in Scotland over the last twenty years, with clear indications of investment and growth continuing in the years to come. Hydrogen peroxide will be the main target contaminant due to its use as a biofouling treatment on submarine structures and as a chemical treatment of sealice in marine salmon farming facilities. Of particular focus will be effects on sea urchins and mussels due to their ecological roles as benthic detritivores and filter feeders as well as their economic value as potential target fisheries. There is a current interest in Scotland to develop integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) for sustainable, efficient, and productive development of the aquaculture industry, and both sea urchins and mussels are considered for development in IMTA systems. Mussels are of additional interest in the west coast of Scotland due to the productive and growing mussel aquaculture industry. Mussel farms are co-located in the same sea loch systems with salmon farms; therefore, it is of particular interest to understand the toxicological impacts of inadvertent exposure to chemical discharges from salmon farms.Hydrogen peroxide sealice treatment is being used more frequently due to the fast reactivity and breakdown in the environment and the absence of bioaccumulation that is evident with some alternative chemical treatment options (e.g. emamectin). Hydrogen peroxide produces reactive oxygen species and can cause oxidative damage in tissues, including DNA strand breaks. There have been reports of non-target effects in crustacean (shrimp) populations near salmon pens in Norway. It is unknown how and to what extent the concentrations and environmental exposure resulting from treatment of a coastal salmon aquaculture facility can impact organisms in the surrounding water. Both sea urchins and mussels are well-established model organisms in ecotoxicological studies, with fully sequenced and annotated genomes providing genetic and molecular tools for research, in the context of well-characterised physiology, behaviour, and reproduction. They are widely used as bioindicators for the presence of water-borne environmental contaminants, and biomarker analyses are well described and optimized. The scientific approach will be to investigate toxicological effects of environmentally relevant exposures of sea urchins and mussels to hydrogen peroxide. These experiments will characterise reproductive and developmental toxicity, and involve both adult and larval exposures.