Tissue samples from 1,117 fish of 25 species were collected from 1991 through 1996 at 13 locations along the River Elbe. The principal indicator species were perch (Perca fluviatilis) (n=118), chub (Leuciscus cephalus L.) (n=113) and roach (Rutilus rutilus) (n=138). Mercury (Hg) concentrations in muscle and liver were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The liver/muscle index in three...

According to the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis, males with attractive sexual ornamentation are more handicapped than their less ornamented rivals because of the immunosuppressive androgens required for the production of secondary sexual characters. Here we studied the predictions of the hypothesis in a wild cyprinid fish, the roach (Rutilus rutilus). We assayed (1) sexual ornamentation (...

Flow-through toxicity tests were conducted on common freshwater fishes: rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), roach (Rutilus rutilus), perch (Perca fluviatilis) and dace (Leuciscus leuciscus), to estimate their sensitivity to acute toxicity of nickel. The 96-hour median lethal concentration (96-hour LC50) values obtained from the tests ranged fr...

Predictions of species responses to climate change often focus on distribution shifts, although responses can also include shifts in body sizes and population demographics. Here, shifts in the distributional ranges ('climate space'), body sizes (as maximum theoretical body sizes, L∞) and growth rates (as rate at which L∞ is reached, K) were predicted for five fishes of the Cyprinidae family in ...

background: diazinon is an organophosphorous pesticide which widely found in municipal, agricultural, and urban storm water discharges. the present study was conducted to achieve lethal concentration (lc50) and behavioral changes of rutilus rutilus caspius and hypophthal-micthys molitrix after exposure to lethal concentration of diazinon. methods: the experiment was carried out in static condit...