Fishes as indicators of ecosystem health: biomonitoring protected marine areas under anthropic influence

• Grant number: 22/00936-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Juliana de Souza Azevedo
• Grantee: Bruno Marassi da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Human development has been proving to be a great antagonistic agent to natural preservation throughout history, being a very recent phenomenon, the concern about environmental impacts triggered by urbanization, industrialization and exploration ofresources. The degradation and pollution of the aquatics environments results in demand for a progressive continuity of scientific studies to report the impacts generated and thus minimize and remedy them, by biomonitoring being one of these instruments. The present proposal aims to continue the biomonitoring research in the Estuarine-Lagunar CananéiaIguape Complex (CELCI), advancing, however, in the spatio-temporal understanding of the CELCI ecosystem health, from the detection of primary and late responses in different species representing the ichthyofauna. The study intents to obtain toxicogenetic and histopathological biomarkers data to understand the effects caused by xenobiotics on 3ichthyofauna and, therefor, verify the impacts caused to aquatic ecosystems, through the inspection of erythrocyte cells, micronuclei, metabolic changes and in the liver tissue. It is expected that, with the results of this research, it is possible to show a confirmation of the impacts generated by the anthropic presence in this estuarine complex, and thereby provoke a reflection on how to preserve and remedy the aquatic environment, that is so important for human survival.Keywords: Cananéia, Iguape, Catfish, Histology, Micronuclei, Xenobiotics.