4-Methylsterols in recent lacustrine sediments: Terrestrial,planktonic or some other origin?

Sediment cores from oxygen depleted zones of lake Léman (lake of Geneva) and from anoxic surface sediment from Voua de la Motte (France) were analyzed for their sterol compositions. 4-methylstanols were found to be major sterols in Motte lake sediment, which is rich in organic matter. In lake Léman, the relative abundances of the same 4-methylstanols increase with the depth in the core, but they remain always minor compounds. An extensive search for a possible external source for these compounds included the analysis of water, of the plankton and of the surrounding soil material. All these results, along with those of an in situ incubation experiment, give strong evidence in favor of their in situ bacterial biosynthesis.     

Sensitivity of the terrestrial biosphere to climatic changes: impact on the carbon cycle

The biosphere is a major pool in the global carbon cycle; its response to climatic change is therefore of great importance. We developed a 5 degrees x 5 degrees longitude-latitude resolution model of the biosphere in which the global distributions of the major biospheric variables, i.e. the vegetation types and the main carbon pools and fluxes, are determined from climatic variables. We defined nine major broad vegetation types: perennial ice, desert and semi-desert, tundra, coniferous forest, temperate deciduous forest, grassland and shrubland, savannah, seasonal tropical forest and evergreen tropical forest. Their geographical repartition is parameterized using correlations between observed vegetation type, precipitation and biotemperature distributions. The model computes as a function of climate and vegetation type, the variables related to the continental biospheric carbon cycle, i.e. the carbon pools such as the phytomass, the litter and the soil organic carbon; and carbon fluxes such as net primary production, litter production and heterotrophic respiration. The modeled present-day biosphere is in good agreement with observation. The model is used to investigate the response of the terrestrial biosphere to climatic changes as predicted by different General Circulation Models (GCM). In particular, the impact on the biosphere of climatic conditions corresponding to the last glacial climate (LGM), 18 000 years ago, is investigated. Comparison with results from present-day climate simulations shows the high sensitivity of the geographical distribution of vegetation types and carbon content as well as biospheric trace gases emissions to climatic changes. The general trend for LGM compared to the present is an increase in low density vegetation types (tundra, desert, grassland) to the detriment of forested areas, in tropical as well as in other regions. Consequently, the biospheric activity (carbon fluxes and trace gases emissions) was reduced.     

Enhanced experimental flexibility and control in ecotoxicological mesocosm experiments--a new outdoor and indoor pond and stream system

Scope The German Federal Environmental Agency has put into operation a new modular mesocosm system consisting of eight outdoor and eight indoor ponds and streams in order to investigate fate and effects of chemicals and municipal wastewater in aquatic ecosystems. General design and special characteristics are given to demonstrate the wide range of possibilities for experimental research. - General design. Each of the 16 streams with riffle and pool sections can be varied in length up to 106 m. The streams can be run as circular or flow-through systems at a flow velocity of 0.02 to 0.6 m/s. Physico-chemical standard parameters are measured on-line. The 16 ponds, which can be connected to the stream systems, are equipped with drainage and pore water-sampling devices for simulating processes in the littoral zone including influent and effluent ground water flow. Perspectives Since the highly flexible and controllable construction also allows treating a wide range of hydrological and ecological experiments external institutions are invited to submit proposals.     

Endocrine disruption of water and sediment extracts in a non-radioactive dot blot/RNAse protection-assay using isolated hepatocytes of rainbow trout

Goal, Scope and Background In order to evaluate the estrogenic activity of sediments and XAD water extracts of selected sites of the catchment area of the River Neckar, a river system in Southern Germany, an integrative assessment approach was used to assess the ecological hazard potential of endocrine-disrupting compounds in sediment and water. Methods The approach is based on estrogen receptor-mediated vitellogenin synthesis induced in isolated hepatocytes of rainbow trout and quantified in a non-radioactive dot blot/RNAse protection-assay in parallel to comprehensive chemical analyses of estrogenic substances. Results and Discussion Numerous investigated extracts revealed an estrogen activity comparable to that of the positive control (1 nM 17?-estradiol corresponding to 270 ng/L in the test medium). Based on a concentration factor of 30 in the extracts and a recovery of XAD resins of approximately 80 %, 17?-estradiol equivalent concentrations between 20 and 26.7 ng/L could be calculated downstream of a sewage treatment plant (< 0.1 ng/L for a reference site). A comparison of the bioassay-derived Bio-TEQs (toxicity equivalents) and the Chem-TEQs revealed a high correlation with a Pearson coefficient of 0.85, indicating that the same ranking of the samples could be obtained with respect to the endocrine disrupting potential with both chemical and bioanalytical analysis. However, the TEQ concentrations computed from chemical analyses were significantly lower than the bioassay-derived TEQ concentrations. In fact, in none of the samples, more than 14 % of the vitellogenin-inducing potency could be attributed to the substances (steroids, alkylphenols, bisphenol A, diethylstilbestrol) analyzed. A comparison of the endocrine disrupting potential of sediments extracted by the solvents acetone and methanol revealed lower biological effects for acetone-extracted samples. Possible reasons may be a masking of endocrine effects in acetone extracts by cytotoxicity, a low extraction efficiency of the solvent acetone, or anti-estrogen potencies of some extracted sediment compounds. Using a mass balance approach, the contribution of the compounds analyzed chemically (Chem-TEQs) to the total endocrine activity (Bio-TEQs) was calculated. Based on the very low detection limits, particularly of the steroids with their high TEF factors, results revealed that a calculation of the Chem-TEQs is associated with considerable scale inaccuracy: Whereas only 7-15 % of the biological effectiveness (Bio-TEQs) could be explained by endocrine substances identified above the detection limits, the assumption of concentrations slightly below the given detection limits would result in a significant over estimation (137-197 %) of the Bio-TEQs. Even the interassay variation of the dot blot assay with different fish donors for primary hepatocyte (factor 2 - 2.5) is relatively low, when compared to the large range of the Chem-TEQ concentrations (factor 20) obtained when applying different modes of calculation. Conclusions and Outlook Overall, only a minor portion of the endocrine activity detected by bioassays could be linked to compounds identified by chemical analysis. In vitro assays for assessment of endocrine activities are useful as sensitive integrating methods that provide quantitative estimates of the total activity of particular receptor-mediated responses. Although discrepancies may also result from different bioanalytical approaches, it is overall likely that bioanalytical and not chemical analytical approaches give the correct estimate of endocrine disrupting potencies in environmental samples. As a conclusion, assessment of endocrine disruption based on chemical analysis alone does not appear sufficient and further research into the spectrum of substances with potential endocrine activity as well as into additive or even synergistic effects in complex environmental samples is urgently needed.     

Mercury pollution and macrophage centres in pike (Esox lucius) tissues

From June 1993 to October 1994, studies have been carried out on the effects of mercury in the Oder River and pike tissue contamination (muscle, kidney, liver). The mean mercury contents in the sediment range from 0.03 to 1.1 mg/kg dry weight. In the pike muscle, between 0.22 and 0.85 mg/kg, on a wet weight basis, were found. The measured mercury concentrations were analysed in relation to the number of macrophage centres of the liver, spleen and kidney of the pike. Positive correlations between mercury and MC response (0.54 ≤ r ≤ 0.79, p < 0.05) were found in all of these organs. The suitability of the macrophage-centre-response as a possible bioindicator for mercury pollution is discussed in the literature. In our study, the response of MCs was found to be suitable as a biomarker for the impairment of fish health.     

Einsatz der Hasse-Diagrammtechnik zur vergleichenden Datenanalyse von Biomarkerantworten und ?kotoxikologischen Tests

Die ?kotoxikologie mu? sich mit biologischen Systemen und ihren Antworten auf schadstoffinduzierten Stre? auseinandersetzen. Die hierzu verwendete experimentelle Technik eilt dabei den M?glichkeiten dynamischer, proze?orientierter mathematischer Modellierung weit voraus. In dieser methodisch orientierten Arbeit werden Techniken aus der mathematischen Disziplin der Verbandstheorie vorgestellt, die eine Datenanalyse unter den Aspekten vergleichender Bewertung erlauben. Wichtige Ergebnisse sind dabei