CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Different fish species have widely been used as effective bioindicators of contamination or degradation in marine environments. Jenyns' sprat Ramnogaster arcuata (Teleostei: Clupeidae) is a small pelagic zooplankton consumer that habits the southwestern Atlantic with a wide distribution in coastal zones. It has a short life cycle (age 0, age 1, age 2, and age 3) that can occur entirely circumscribed within the Bahía Blanca estuary (BBE) in Argentina. Due to this characteristic and its resident habits, this fish species has been proposed as an efficient bioindicator organism for the South American coastal environments. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that the age of a marine coastal fish used as a bioindicator is important in being considered for evaluating the health of an aquatic environment. To this end, different journey samplings were performed over a year at different places in the BBE to obtain specimens of R. arcuate at different ages. Macromolecules levels (protein, glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol), metabolic enzymes activities (Alanine aminotransferase, Aspartate aminotransferase, Lactate dehydrogenase, andCreatine Kinase), and oxidative stress (lipid peroxidation) were measured in muscular and liver tissues. Results showed that the most representative age of R. arcuate during an entire year in the BBE was the age of 1, followed by age 2; ages 0 and 4 being the least represented. Moreover, there was a variability of the biomolecules, metabolic enzymes, and oxidative stress in different tissues analyzed according to age. In conclusion, the more representative age of R. arcuata in the BBE to be used as a bioindicator is 1, and different biomolecules and enzymes could be used as biomarkers of contamination, especially lipid peroxidation in liver tissue.

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