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Assessing the ecotoxicology of 4-nonylphenol, a ubiquitous environmental estrogen, in two organismal bioassays

PIs: Heiko Schoenfuss and Matthew Julius, Assistant Professors, Department of Biological Sciences, St. Cloud State University

Funding Source: USGS-WRRI 104B/ CAIWQ Competitive Grants Program

Project Duration: 8/1/2004 - 2/28/2006

Final Project Report, pdf, 111 KB

Alkylphenols (APs), which are used in large quantities as surfactants, were recently discovered in many surface water samples in Europe and North America and are know to bind to the estrogen receptor of mammalian cells. Environmental estrogens such as APs are known to disrupt normal endocrine hormone concentrations that are central to maturation and reproduction in fishes, and their ubiquitous presence should be of environmental and human health concern. In this study we examine the effects of APs exposure on two organismal bioassays. The first, a reproductive assay, would test whether male fish experience reduced reproductive success if exposed to realistic concentrations of APs, while the second bioassay would examine the physiological response of a diatom to APs exposure. The study of these two bioassays in the context of endocrine disruptive environmental estrogens would comprise the most comprehensive study of its kind and provide valuable and much needed information for the risk-assessment of these contaminants on surface waters. Furthermore, this study would also provide two tools in form of the developed bioassays to study other environmental estrogens whose ecological risk still needs to be assessed.