| Project Title |  |
| Project
C3: Links between tissue metal burdens in indigenous fish and metal-induced
effects at the organism & population levels.
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| Research Team | |
| P.G.C. Campbell,
INRS-Eau. Email: peter_campbell@inrs-ete.uquebec.ca Tel: 418-654-2538 Co-Investigators: J. Rasmussen, McGill University.
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| Project Summary | |
| This field project has been designed to assess inter-lake variability in the responses of indigenous fish collected from lakes situated along a metal concentration gradient. The key hypothesis to be tested is that there exists a mechanistic link between the intracellular speciation of the metals and the manifestation of deleterious effects at the organism (physiology, endocrine and metabolic status, growth, reproductive status) and population (abundance, production, reproductive fitness) levels. The main study area is centred around Rouyn-Noranda, in northwestern Quebec, and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) has been chosen as the trial biosentinel species. Sampling was carried out in June and September 1999 in lakes located along a metal concentration gradient to verify the seasonal variability of physiological and toxicological parameters in yellow perch, to determine the age structure of the perch populations, and to document variations in invertebrate prey populations in lakes along the metal gradient. In parallel, considerable effort has been devoted to the development and testing of analytical methods for determining subcellular metal partitioning in various fish tissues and to the testing the long-term stability of these fish tissue samples. | |