Influence of environment eutrophication in the trophic transfer of fatty acids throughout the reproductive cycle of fish with different feeding habits

Author(s)

Aline Dal' Olio Gomes

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB)
• Defense date: 2014-07-31

Examining board members

Renata Guimarães Moreira Whitton; Iola Gonçalves Boechat; Marcelo Luiz Martins Pompeo; Cristiéle da Silva Ribeiro; Neuza Sumiko Takahashi

• Advisor: Renata Guimarães Moreira Whitton

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how the reservoirs eutrophication degree interferes with the trophic transfer of fatty acids (FA) to teleost fish with different feeding habits, relating the major FAs considered biomarkers to their importance in biochemical processes. For this purpose, adult females of Astyanax fasciatus, an omnivorous species, and Hoplias malabaricus, a carnivorous species, were sampled for one year in two reservoirs with different eutrophication degree in the metropolitan region of São Paulo: Ponte Nova, considered a reference reservoir, and the arm Taquacetuba from Billings reservoir, an hypereutrophic site. The FA profile of seston, stomach content and tissue triglycerides (TG) and phospholipids (PL) were analyzed by gas chromatography. As a result of the sestonic FAs profile and of stomach contents, was possible to observe a predominance of n6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), such as C18:2n6 and ARA (arachidonic acid), and FA C18:1n9 in most analyzed tissues of A. fasciatus females from reference reservoir, while there was a higher percentage of n3 HUFAs (highly unsaturated fatty acids), especially EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in tissues of females from hypereutrophic reservoir, resulting in changes in the n3/n6 and EPA/ARA ratios in these animals. The same pattern of FAs deposition can be observed in the tissues of H. malabaricus females, as a result of the FAs profile of its potential prey, A. fasciatus. However, the imbalance of different classes of PUFAs observed between reservoirs appears to be lower, not resulting in changes in the EPA/ARA ratio in these carnivorous animals. Thus, environmental changes interfered with the FAs profile of seston in the fields, and then in the composition of FAs food available to higher trophic levels. This fact reflected in changes in the FAs profile of tissue Tgs and Fls of fish from different environments, and it can interfere in a range of biochemical processes involved with these molecules. On the other hand, these changes seem to have a lower effect in carnivorous species than omnivorous (AU)