Understanding the responses of fish species to municipal wastewater effluents

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Fish species differ in their sensitivity to environmental disturbance due to exposure differences associated with habitat preferences and poorly documented between species variability in metabolism, and influenced by life history traits and reproductive strategies. Many monitoring programs focus on single fish species that are abundant, widely distributed and easy to catch, and there have been few comparative studies examining the relative sensitivity of different fish species. Until recently, my Discovery Grant research primarily focused on pulp and paper effluents, hydroelectric facilities, and agriculture as stressors. Municipal effluents are a major source of inputs to Canadian river systems, and my program will shift to these effluents to focus on improving our understanding of the interaction of habitat preferences, reproductive strategies, and metabolic differences on exposure and responses to stressors. The fish collections will collaborate with existing long term monitoring programs in large river systems in Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick, and use a series of linked studies to expand the number of species examined beyond those currently utilized in the monitoring programs in an effort to develop a better understanding of the basis for species differences in sensitivity. Objective 1 will examine differences in exposure, uptake, and physiological response, and compare the responses of fish species with differing reproductive strategies, including single spring spawners, multiple summer spawners with few spawns, and those with extended spawning periods in the Athabasca River (AB) and in the Grand River (ON). To remove the confounding effect of mobility on exposure, the research will include some short term simultaneous exposures of different fish species to look at metabolic capacity and transcriptomic responses to exposure to better characterize species sensitivities. Objective 2 will examine the role that differences in mobility, habitat choice and feeding preferences play in affecting exposure and uptake of municipal wastewater effluent-related chemicals, and utilize long term studies in the Saint John River (NB) and the Athabasca (AB). The long-term objectives of my research program are to provide critical new knowledge to understanding the timing of sampling, species selection, and endpoint determination to help understand fish species sensitivity to municipal wastewaters. In total, the studies will examine the basis for differences across 20 fish species across the country, in an attempt to develop a generalized model for species sensitivity to complex stressors. This Discovery Grant program will provide a stimulating training environment that is interdisciplinary in nature, collaborative in practice, and national in focus.