The use of physiological indices in rabbitfish Siganus oramin for monitoring of coastal pollution

摘要

Fish are considered top consumers with a relatively long life span and high biomagnification level of pollutants (Fang et al., 2009b), and physiological impairment in fish is representative of general pollution in an aquatic system (Bervoets et al., 2009). Growth integrates feeding, assimilation and energy expenditure over time, and is one of the most important Darwinian fitness traits. Condition factor (CF), which assumes that heavier fish of a given length is in better condition, is able to indicate fish fitness under stress of pollution as metabolic trade-off is required to deal with detoxification and the energy available for growth may thus be reduced. CF in fish was reported to decline upon exposure to heavy metals (Roussel et al., 2007; Bervoets et al., 2009), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Khan, 2003).