Moving from lab to field to assess cardiorespiratory and metabolic contaminant effects in fish

鱼类的呼吸和代谢毒性不仅是一系列令人惊讶的污染物的共同效应，而且也是最敏感的效应之一。无论是韦伯和扬茨NSERC发现，战略和参与研究计划有一个主要重点是检查亚致命的影响，环境毒物。Weber和Janz采用的非致死性测量游泳能力、代谢、心血管功能和肝脏/性腺大小的方法需要额外的设备，其形式为：1）尺寸适合于评估成年小体型鱼或较大鱼种（例如在加拿大工业场所下游发现的鱼种）的幼鱼的游泳和主动代谢率的游泳隧道，2）能够精确测量基础代谢的呼吸计和3）具有中等分辨率的现场可部署超声，用于类似大小的鱼的心血管功能和肝脏/性腺大小评估。所有这些方法都是非致死性的，因此提供了对相同个体重复取样的优点，以减少实验的可变性，减少动物样本的大小，并消除了对低生产力或濒危系统的鱼类进行致死性取样的需要。这些技术的适用范围很广，从Weber和Janz已经研究过的石油污染物、金属开采和铀废水的影响，到城市污水、煤矿开采、水电设施和热污染或全球变暖的影响。我们的目标是通过开发和改进新颖和创新的方法来评估游泳，呼吸，代谢和心血管功能以及正常鱼类和暴露于有毒物质的鱼类的器官大小，以增加对这些过程的基本理解，但具体目标是将这些方法从实验室带到现场。

Cardiorespiratory and metabolic toxicity in fish has emerged not only as an effect common to a surprisingly broad range of contaminants, but is also one of the most sensitive effects. Both the Weber and Janz NSERC Discovery, Strategic and Engage research programs have a major focus on examining sub-lethal effects of environmental toxicants. Methods employed by Weber and Janz to non-lethally measure swimming ability, metabolism, cardiovascular function and liver/gonad size require additional equipment in the form of 1) a swim tunnel in the size suitable to assess swimming and active metabolic rate in adult small-bodied fish or juveniles of larger fish species such as that found downstream of industrial sites in Canada, 2) a respirometer capable of accurately measuring basal metabolism and 3) a field deployable ultrasound with intermediate resolution for cardiovascular function and liver/gonad size assessment in similar-sized fish. All of these methods are non-lethal, thus offering the advantage of repeated sampling of the same individuals to reduce experimental variability, reducing animal sample size and negating the need for lethal sampling of fish from low productivity or endangered systems. Applicability of these techniques is wide, spanning from examining effects of petroleum contaminants, metal mining and uranium effluents as has already been examined by Weber and Janz, but also to effects of municipal sewage, coal mining, hydroelectric installations and thermal pollution or global warming. We aim to increase fundamental understanding of these processes by developing and refining novel and innovative methods to evaluate swimming, respiratory, metabolic and cardiovascular function as well as organ size in normal fish and fish exposed to toxic substances, but with the specific goal to take these methods from the laboratory to the field.