River floodplain ecosystems host one of the highest freshwater molluscan biodiversity on Earth. However, multiple human disturbances, such as loss of hydrological connectivity and deterioration of water quality, are seriously threatening most floodplain lakes throughout the world. Given the high imperilment rate of freshwater molluscs but the scarcity of studies examining the anthropogenic effects on this fauna, we test the response of mollusc assemblages to river-lake disconnection and eutrophication in 30 lakes in the Yangtze River floodplain, China. The species richness of entire Mollusca, Gastropoda and Bivalvia and 6 dominant families were all much lower at disconnected lakes than that in connected lakes, and decreased with increasing water eutrophication. The assemblage structure differed significantly among four lake groups for datasets based on entire Mollusca, Gastropoda and Bivalvia, indicating the serious impacts of hydrological disconnection and eutrophication. Moreover, the connected lakes showed significantly lower values of average taxonomic distinctness (Δ⁺) but higher values of variation in taxonomic distinctness (Λ⁺) than disconnected lakes. Such variations were triggered by the extirpation of congeneric and endemic species (mainly from families Unionidae and Viviparidae), which giving a waring of the loss of mollusc endemism in this region. In general, the present study showed that river-lake disconnection and deterioration of water quality resulted in serious biodiversity declines of both gastropods and bivalves in the Yangtze River floodplain lakes. A systematic approach including restoration of river-lake connectivity and habitats and improvement of water quality should be implemented in the conservation planning in this large river floodplain.

Organochlorine contaminants (OCs) – organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and industrial products and byproducts – are included in different monitoring programmes and surveys, involving various animal species. Fish-eating birds are suitable indicator species for OCs. Adult birds may be difficult to capture, but chicks can be sampled more easily. Blood of birds is a potentially suitable non-destructive matrix for analysis, as OC levels in blood reflect their concentrations in the body. The study was aimed at investigating how age of fast-growing Grey heron (Ardea cinerea) chicks affects contaminant levels in their blood and thus how important is sampling at exact age for biomonitoring purposes. In 1999 on Lake Engure in Latvia whole blood samples of heron chicks were collected at three different time points, with seven and nine days in between the first and second and second and third sampling points, respectively. Twenty-two chicks were sampled at all three times. In total, 102 samples were analysed for 19 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, DDT metabolites – DDE and DDD, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), α-, β-, γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), and trans-nonachlor. Total PCB concentrations averaged around 2000 ng/g dry extracted matter (EM). DDE was the dominant individual contaminant (ca. 800 ng/g EM), followed by CB-153, -138, and −118. Most of the other analysed OCs were below 100 ng/g EM. No significant (p > 0.05) differences in OC concentrations were found between the three sampling occasions, except for trans-nonachlor. This means that blood can safely be sampled for biomonitoring purposes during the 17 days’ time window. The analysed legacy contaminants may serve as model substances for other persistent organic pollutants.

The subcellular partitioning approach provides useful information on the location of metals within cells and is often used on organisms with high levels of bioaccumulation to establish relationships between the internal concentration and the potential toxicity of metals. Relatively little is known about the subcellular partitioning of metals in wild fish with low bioaccumulation levels in comparison with those from higher contaminated areas. This study aims to examine the subcellular partitioning of various metals considering their chemical affinity and essentiality at relatively low contamination levels. Class A (Y, Sr), class B (Cu, Cd, MeHg), and borderline (Fe, Mn) metal concentrations were measured in livers and subcellular fractions of yellow perch (n = 21) collected in Lake Saint-Pierre, QC, Canada. The results showed that all metals, apart from MeHg, were distributed among subcellular fractions according to their chemical affinity. More than 60% of Y, Sr, Fe, and Mn were found in the metal-sensitive fractions. Cd and Cu were largely associated with the metallothionein-like proteins and peptides (60% and 67% respectively) whereas MeHg was found mainly in the metal-sensitive fractions (86%). In addition, the difference between the subcellular distribution of Cu and other essential metals like Fe and Mn denotes that, although the essentiality of some metals is a determinant of their subcellular distribution, the chemical affinity of metals is also a key driver. The similarity of the subcellular partitioning results with previous studies on yellow perch and other fish species from higher contaminated areas supports the idea that metals are distributed in the cellular environment according to their chemical properties regardless of the bioaccumulation gradient.

The largest and most variable step of selenium (Se) assimilation into aquatic ecosystems is the rapid uptake of aqueous Se by primary producers. These organisms can transfer more harmful forms of Se to higher trophic levels via dietary pathways, although much uncertainty remains around this step of Se assimilation due to site-specific differences in water chemistry, hydrological and biogeochemical characteristics, and community composition. Thus, predictions of Se accumulation are difficult, and boreal lake systems are relatively understudied. To address these knowledge gaps, five static-renewal field experiments were performed to examine the bioaccumulation of low, environmentally relevant concentrations of Se, as selenite, by naturally grown periphyton from multiple boreal lakes. Periphyton rapidly accumulated Se at low aqueous Se concentrations, with tissue Se concentrations ranging from 8.0 to 24.9 μg/g dry mass (dm) in the 1–2 μg Se/L treatments. Enrichment functions ranged from 2870 to 12 536 L/kg dm in the 4 μg Se/L treatment, to 11 867–22 653 L/kg dm in the 0.5 μg Se/L treatment among lakes. Periphyton Se uptake differed among the five study lakes, with periphyton from mesotrophic lakes generally accumulating more Se than periphyton from oligotrophic lakes. Higher proportions of charophytes and greater dissolved inorganic carbon in more oligotrophic lakes corresponded to less periphyton Se uptake. Conversely, increased proportions of bacillariophytes and total dissolved phosphorus in more mesotrophic lakes corresponded to greater periphyton Se uptake. Periphyton community composition and water chemistry variables were correlated, limiting interpretation of differences in periphyton Se accumulation among lakes. The results of this research provide insight on the biodynamics of Se assimilation at the base of boreal lake food webs at environmentally relevant concentrations, which can potentially inform ecological risk assessments in boreal lake ecosystems in North America.

To study the early colonization processes, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microfragments were immersed in Lake Sakadaš and the Drava River and sampled weekly together with the surrounding biotic communities - phytoplankton, zooplankton, epixylon in the lake and epilithon in the river. At the end of the study, a rise in water level occurred in the river, which altered the environmental conditions and plankton communities. In studied environments, all of the sampled biotic communities were diverse and abundant. Plastispheres formed in both waters by the seventh day of incubation and developed rapidly, reaching a peak in abundance on the last day of the study. Initial colonization was supported equally by planktonic and periphytic taxa in both environments, but after initial settlement, plastisphere assemblages were affected differently in the river and lake. This study suggests that PET microfragments are a suitable substrate for microphyte settlement and may provide an important pathway for their transport in dynamic freshwater floodplains and river systems.

Fish community manipulation and regulation has been largely overlooked as a mitigation strategy for restoring submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in shallow lakes of the middle and lower Yangtze River Basin (MLYRB). An in-situ fish exclusion experiment and a large-scale lake manipulation were conducted to test the hypothesis that the reasonable removal of benthivorous and herbivorous fish would facilitate the restoration and reconstruction of SAV in shallow lakes within the MLYRB. The in-situ exclusion experiment was conducted from April to October in 2017. Electrofishing was used to remove benthivorous and herbivorous fish from the exclosures. SAV were then artificially planted in the same pattern and density in both exclosures and adjacent open sites, and responses were measured for seven consecutive months. The mean percent coverage and biomass of SAV in the exclosures increased quickly and remained significantly higher than those in open sites over the duration of the experiment. Water quality also improved as turbidity, chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus and total nitrogen in the exclosures remained significantly lower than those in the open sites. After the in-situ experiment, a larger scale manipulation of fish in the entire submerged macrophyte zone (SMZ) was implemented from 2017 to 2020. After removing more than 2/3 of the benthivorous and herbivorous fish biomass by October 2020 in the SMZ, both the species richness and spatial coverage of SAV increased from 2 to 9 and from 1.7% to 32.2%, respectively. Our results provided clear evidence that fish are strong regulators of SAV productivity and that their reasonable removal facilitates ecological recovery. Therefore, we propose that fish community manipulation as implemented in this study be given more attention in addition to the reduction of external nutrient loading when designing projects to restore SAV in shallow lakes of the MLYRB.

The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in temperate urban lacustrine ecosystems is poorly understood. We investigated the occurrence and trophic transfer of and probabilistic health risk from 15 PFAAs in the food web of Luoma Lake, a temperate urban lake in East China. The target PFAAs were widely distributed in the water (∑PFAA: 77.09 ± 9.07 ng/L), suspended particulate matter (SPM) (∑PFAA: 284.07 ± 118.05 ng/g dw), and sediment samples (∑PFAA: 67.77 ± 17.96 ng/g dw) and occurred in all biotic samples (∑PFAA: 443.27 ± 124.89 ng/g dw for aquatic plants; 294.99 ± 90.82 for aquatic animals). PFBA was predominant in water and SPM, with 40.11% and 21.35% of the total PFAAs, respectively, while PFOS was the most abundant in sediments (14.11% of the total PFAAs) and organisms (14.33% of the total PFAAs). Sediment exposure may be the major route of biological uptake of PFAAs. The PFAA accumulation capacity was the highest in submerged plants, followed by emergent plants > bivalves > crustaceans > fish > floating plants. Long-chain PFAAs were biomagnified, and short-chain PFAAs were biodiluted across the entire lacustrine food web. PFOS exhibited the greatest bioaccumulation and biomagnification potential among the target PFAAs. However, biomagnification of short-chain PFAAs was also observed within the low trophic-level part of the food web. Human health risk assessment indicated that perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) posed health risks to all age groups, while the other PFAAs were unlikely to cause immediate harm to consumers in the region. This study fills a gap in the knowledge of the transfer of PFAAs in the food webs of temperate urban lakes.

Quinolone antibiotics (QNs) pollution in lake environments is increasingly raising public concern due to their potential combined toxicity and associated risks. However, the spatiotemporal distribution and trophodynamics of QNs in transit-station lakes for water diversion are not well documented or understood. In this study, a comprehensive investigation of QNs in water, sediment, and aquatic fauna, including norfloxacin (NOR), ciprofloxacin (CIP), enrofloxacin (ENR), and ofloxacin (OFL), was conducted in Luoma Lake, a major transit station for the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China. The target QNs were widely distributed in the water (∑QNs: 70.12 ± 62.79 ng/L) and sediment samples (∑QNs: 13.35 ± 10.78 ng/g dw) in both the non-diversion period (NDP) and the diversion period (DP), where NOR and ENR were predominant. All the QNs were detected in all biotic samples in DP (∑QNs: 80.04 ± 20.59 ng/g dw). The concentration of ∑QNs in the water in NDP was significantly higher than those in DP, whereas the concentration in the sediments in NDP was comparable to those in DP. ∑QNs in the water-sediment system exhibited decreasing trends from northwest (NW) to southeast (SE) in both periods; however, the Kₒc (organic carbon normalized partition coefficients) of individual QNs in DP sharply rose compared with those in NDP, which indicated that water diversion would alter the environmental fate of QNs in Luoma Lake. In DP, all QNs, excluding NOR, were all biodiluted across the food web; whereas their bioaccumulation potentials in the SE subregion were higher than those in the NW subregion, which was in contrast to the spatial distribution of their exposure concentrations. The estimated daily QN intakes via drinking water and aquatic products suggested that residents in the SE side were exposed to greater health risks, despite less aquatic pollution in the region.

It is well-accepted that phosphorus, particularly orthophosphate, is a determinant factor in aquatic eutrophication. However, numerous kinds of phosphorus sources exist in real world scenario, and limited studies have characterized the pairwise relationships among abundant different phosphorus sources and the physiological behaviour of algae. The present study developed a high-throughput assay to investigate the effects of 59 different phosphorus sources (equal initial concentration of total phosphorus) on the growth and alkaline phosphatase (AKP) activities of Microcystis aeruginosa, a model cyanobacteria whose predominance holds sway in lake eutrophication. M. aeruginosa cultivated with nucleoside monophosphates (NMPs) had higher growth, relative AKP activities and residual orthophosphate, which were positively intercorrelated. Oppositely, non-NMPs cultivation of M. aeruginosa led to negative relationships between the relative AKP activities and their growth or residual orthophosphate. These results indicated distinct mechanisms for M. aeruginosa to utilize different phosphorus sources in real-world scenario, and both phosphorus source and content are determinant factors on the growth and physiological behaviour of M. aeruginosa. Given the complicated and vast phosphorus pool in the natural environment, phosphorus resources might significantly alter the abundance and physiological behaviour of M. aeruginosa and other bloom-forming algae, then influence the phytoplanktonic community structure and affect the possibility and intensity of algal bloom. Our work hints the underestimation of the restriction factors in lake eutrophication and provides a new tool to study the driven forces of phytoplanktonic community dynamics as phosphorus from both internal and external sources.

Tissue distribution of legacy and emerging per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in several kinds of edible fishes collected from Meiliang bay of Taihu Lake, China were investigated and the related human health risks were assessed. Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA) and 6:2 fluorotelomer phosphate diester (6:2 diPAP) were the most abundant legacy perfluoroalkyl acid (PFAA), PFOS related precursor (PreFOS), and the emerging PFASs in all fish tissues, respectively. Similar to the legacy PFAAs, 6:2 diPAP and 6:6 perfluorophosphinate (6:6 PFPiA) had the highest levels in the fish liver, whereas the highest level of PFOSA was in kidney, which might be due to its intensive transformation in fish liver. The concentrations of PFASs were generally positively correlated with the trophic levels. The profiles of PFASs were significantly different among bitterling, crucian and other fish, which might be related to their different metabolic capacities. Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) of PreFOSs, 6:2 diPAP, and 6:6 PFPiA were lower than those of PFAAs with the same number of perfluorinated carbons. The calculated hazard ratios (HR) of PFOS (Range: 0.0100–0.655) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) (<0.00200) in all fish muscles were less than 1.0. However, the HR of the ∑PFASs in crucian muscle was 1.04, which implied that frequent consumption of crucian collected from Meiliang Bay might pose potential risks to human health.