Soaking up the oil: Biological impacts of dispersants and crude oil on the sponge Halichondria panicea.

Used during an oil spill to minimise the formation of an oil slick, dispersants have negative biological effects on marine model organisms. However, no study has investigated the impacts of dispersants on adult sponge individuals. Here, we examine the effects of water accommodated oil fraction (WAF - oil in seawater), chemically enhanced WAF (CEWAF - oil and dispersant in seawater) and Benzo[A]Pyrene on sponge Halichondria panicea at physiological and molecular levels. Sponge clearance rate decreased sharply when exposed to WAF and CEWAF but the oil loading at which the clearance rate was reduced by 50% (ED50) was 39-fold lower in CEWAF than in WAF. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a homogenous molecular response with the greatest number of differentially expressed genes identified in CEWAF samples (1,461 genes). Specifically, genes involved in stress responses were up-regulated. This study presents evidence that the use of dispersants should be considered carefully in areas where sponges are present.

Acute toxicity of aromatic and non-aromatic fractions of naphthenic acids extracted from oil sands process-affected water to larval zebrafish.

The toxicity of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) has regularly been attributed to naphthenic acids, which exist in complex mixtures. If on remediation treatment (e.g., ozonation) or on entering the environment, the mixtures of these acids all behave in the same way, then they can be studied as a whole. If, however, some acids are resistant to change, whilst others are not, or are less resistant, it is important to establish which sub-classes of acids are the most toxic. In the present study we therefore assayed the acute toxicity to larval fish, of a whole acidified OSPW extract and an esterifiable naphthenic acids fraction, de-esterified with alkali: both fractions were toxic (LC50 ∼5-8mgL(-1)). We then fractionated the acids by argentation solid phase extraction of the esters and examined the acute toxicity of two fractions: a de-esterified alicyclic acids fraction, which contained, for example, adamantane and diamantane carboxylic acids, and an aromatic acids fraction. The alicyclic acids were toxic (LC50 13mgL(-1)) but the higher molecular weight aromatic acids fraction was somewhat more toxic, at least on a weight per volume basis (LC50 8mgL(-1); P<0.05) (for comparison, the monoaromatic dehydroabietic acid had a LC50 of ∼1mgL(-1)). These results show how toxic naphthenic acids of OSPW are to these larval fish and that on a weight per volume basis, the aromatic acids are at least as toxic as the 'classical' alicyclic acids. The environmental fates and other toxic effects, if any, of the fractions remain to be established.