Biomarkers aid understanding of aquatic organism responses to environmental stressors

Abstract

Biomarkers can be useful tools for understanding the complex interactions that govern organism re-sponses to environmental stressors and their sublethal effects on organ- ism health. We conducted studies on two types of biomarkers: stress pro- teins and tissue alterations. A study on the freshwater fish medaka demonstrates that the ability to increase cellular stress-protein concentrations at specific life stages can be vitally important for normal embryo development. A field study on Asian clam investigates the usefulness of stress proteins and histopathology as indicators of exposure to and sublethal effects of environmental stressors in the northern San Francisco Bay and Delta.