CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Aquatic ecosystems receive continuously anthropogenic inputs, including agrochemicals residues from agricultural activities. Different responses of organisms inhabiting these environments can be used as early warning signs (or biomarkers), demonstrating that toxic substances entering an organism and can have a toxic effect. It is nowadays recognized that biomarkers represent a useful tool to monitor aquatic contamination as they provide an integrated measure of the toxicological burden of contamination. Environmental toxicology requires the development of a battery of biomarkers to evaluate chemical hazards in a multiparametric approach, including general stress- and more specific- biomarkers. The general objective of our research is to study environmental levels of current use pesticides in freshwater ecosystems in Argentina and its effects in non- target organisms inhabiting there. For that, the following research lines are developed: - Monitoring of current use pesticides in freshwater ecosystems associated to extensive agriculture, - Biochemical biomarkers (antioxidant enzymes, endogenous metabolites), - Biomarkers of genotoxicity (DNA fragmentation, micronucleous) and Molecular biomarkers (izoenzymes expression) in fishes and aquatic macrophytes. Recently, we have discovered sublethal effects (oxidative stress and genotoxicity) of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in the fish Australoheros facetus and of the fungicide azoxystrobin in the aquatic macrophyte Myriophyllum quitense, both species representative of Argentina´s Pampa. Future studies are directed to enlarge the battery of biomarkers by including among others, hematologycal biomarkers as well as epigenetic effects in fish model species.