Biochemical blood parameters: are they effective biomarkers of chronic toxicity?

The use of biomarkers has become attractive and useful for monitoring environmental quality and health of fish inhabiting polluted ecosystems. Among them, plasmatic biochemical parameters could be a promissory indicator of fish health condition. The question that arises is if these parameters can be applied to chronic toxicity. In this study we investigated the use of plasmatic biochemical parameters as indicators of fish chronic exposure to metals. Mullets (Liza saliens), inhabiting a metal polluted habitat, a small coastal lagoon Esmoriz-Paramos (Northwest coast, Portugal), showed alterations of plasmatic parameters related with Cu and Zn bioaccumulation in tissues. The effect of metals chronic exposure in plasmatic parameters is scarcely studied and this study in a lagoon, where fish are exposed to metals for its life span, enabled a realistic long-term evaluation of the stress response