Mass mortality of fish embryos in a lake ecosystem attributable to a
flame retardant
- Yu Li,
- Kai Huang,
- Jieqiong Jiang,
- Yue Xiao,
- Lihui An,
- Shiyi Zhang,
- Qiyue Kang,
- Ruichao Chen,
- Yingting Jia,
- Xiaohua Zhang,
- Chunsheng Liu,
- Jianying Hu
Lihui An
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
Author ProfileAbstract
Fishery resources are highly threatened by man-made chemicals that cause
early life-stage mortality in fish, and could consequently block
population recruitment. In a wide-scale and long-term investigation in
Taihu Lake, we found that the temporal and spatial variation in
embryonic mortality of crucian carp were consistent with the embryonic
TDCIPP concentrations. We also confirmed in a well-controlled laboratory
study that environmental concentrations of TDCIPP could cause embryonic
mortality in crucian carp. Thus, TDCIPP was a major causal agent for
mass embryonic mortality of crucian carp in Taihu Lake. These findings
highlight the deleterious effect of this high-production-volume
industrial chemical on global fishery and suggest ecosystem conservation
should account for supervision of ubiquitous chemicals.