Despite available technology and the knowledge that chemical pollution damages human and ecosystem health, chemical pollution remains rampant, ineffectively monitored, rarely prevented, and only occasionally mitigated. We present a framework that helps address current major challenges in the monitoring and assessment of chemical pollution by broadening the use of the sentinel species Daphnia as a diagnostic agent of water pollution. And where prevention has failed, we propose the application of Daphnia as a bioremediation agent to help reduce hazards from chemical mixtures in the environment. By applying “omics” technologies to Daphnia exposed to real-world ambient chemical mixtures, we show improvements at detecting bioactive components of chemical mixtures, determining the potential effects of untested chemicals within mixtures, and identifying targets of toxicity. We also show that using Daphnia strains that naturally adapted to chemical pollution as removal agents of ambient chemical mixtures can sustainably improve environmental health protection. Expanding the use of Daphnia beyond its current applications in regulatory toxicology has the potential to improve both the assessment and the remediation of environmental pollution.

中文翻译：

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水蚤作为环境健康保护的哨兵物种：化学污染生物监测与生物修复的视角


尽管现有技术和知识表明化学污染会损害人类和生态系统健康，但化学污染仍然猖獗，监测不力，很少预防，而且只是偶尔得到缓解。我们提出了一个框架，通过扩大哨兵物种水蚤作为水污染诊断剂的用途，帮助解决当前化学污染监测和评估方面的主要挑战。在预防失败的情况下，我们建议应用水蚤作为生物修复剂，以帮助减少环境中化学混合物的危害。通过将“组学”技术应用于暴露于现实世界环境化学混合物的水蚤，我们在检测化学混合物的生物活性成分、确定混合物中未经测试的化学物质的潜在影响以及识别毒性目标方面取得了进展。我们还表明，使用自然适应化学污染的水蚤菌株作为环境化学混合物的去除剂可以可持续地改善环境健康保护。将水蚤的用途扩大到其目前在监管毒理学中的应用之外，有可能改善环境污染的评估和修复。