Downstream gradients in bioindicator responses: point source contaminant effects on fish health

To investigate potential causal relationships between contaminant exposure and biological responses in fish, a suite of bioindicators ranging from the biochemical to the community-level were measured in fish populations and communities downstream from a bleached kraft mill effluent (BKME) discharge. Downstream gradients in responses were evident in elevated hepatic mixed-function oxygenase activity, several measures of condition and bioenergetic status, growth, the health assessment index, and several fish community-level parameters. A multivariate discriminant analysis procedure, which included many of the individual bioindicators, also demonstrated a gradient in integrated health status of a sentinel fish species in the contaminated river. These downstream response gradients were probably influenced to a greater degree by contaminant discharges than by natural or anthropogenic nutrient sources downstream. Establishing causal relationships between a specific contaminant source and responses in sentinel aquatic organisms becomes relatively more straightforward when downstream gradients in biological responses are observed at multiple levels of biological organization.