The Antarctic bivalve Laternula elliptica as a sentinel organism for environmental monitoring around the Antarctic station

Abstract

The Antarctic nearshore environment where stations are being operated year-round is potentially subject to contamination by pollutants arising from station operations, such as emissions from fossil fuel burning, oil spills and waste disposal etc. Regular and effective monitoring using appropriate sentinel organisms (biomonitors) is therefore required to assess the anthropogenic impact on the coastal ecosystem and to facilitate early detection of possible unforeseen negative effects on the ecosystem. Utilities of histological and sub-cellular level responses as biomarkers to exposure of contaminants (metal-binding proteins to heavy metals, cytochrom P450 to hydrocarbons) have also been suggested in L. elliptica. Immuno-histochemical response to a mouse MT antibody was detected in the kidney and digestive gland of L. elliptica, and a gel filtration chromatography revealed that most of the cytosolic Cd was associated with MT-like proteins.