Development of a System for Ecotoxicology Biotesting in Alpine and Karst Regions

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Development of a System for Ecotoxicology
Biotesting in Alpine and Karst Regions
Romana Marinek-Logar
University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical
faculty, Zootechnical department
(romana.marinsek_at_bfro.uni-lj.si)
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Project idea prepared by
- Zootechnical Department, Biotech. Fac.,
University Ljubljana (Romana Marinek Logar)
- Department of Biology, Biotech. Fac.,
University Ljubljana (Damjana Drobne)
- Institute of Physical Biology, Ljubljana
(RD) Alexis Zrimec
- National Institute for Biology, Ljubljana
(RD) Maja Ravnikar, Andreja Ramak
- Chemical Institute, Ljubljana (RD) Tanja
Tiler

• National Institute of Public Health of the
  Republic of Slovenia
• (Sonja Jeram)

- Regional Institute of Public Health, Maribor
(Boris Kolar)
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Problem

• The safety and quality of environment (living
  space, human and animal food,
• turist areas) are the growing concerns of
  Europe.

- The safety and quality of environment could not
be judged only on the basis of
physico-chemical analyses and measurements

• Biotests and biomarkers are needed to elucidate
  the integral effects of
• human activities (pollution, environmental
  stress) in certain environment on
• living organisms or
• to demonstrate the safety and high quality
  status of the analysed environment.

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Problem

• The Alpine and Karst regions are very specific,
  sensitive and vulnerable
• environments
• and
• - need proper ecotoxicological assessment by
  relevant biotests and biomarkers

• The available biotests/ biomarkers (by ISO
  standards and OECD guidelines)
• need to be critically evaluated on water, soil
  and food samples from Alpine
• and Karst regions
• New relevant biotests/ biomarkers should be
  developed and evaluated.
• Acquired ecotoxicological data shoud be
  integrated with other existing or
• newly acquired data (geography, geology, water,
  climate, economy, physico-
• chemical data, ecological surveys) to build up
  a Decision Support System.

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Possible sollution (final product, service to bi
achieved)
1. Revision and evaluation of relevancy of
existing biomarkers/biotests (by ISO standards
and OECD guidelines) on Alpine and Karst soil and
water samples according to the specificities of
these two types of environment Chronic and
acute toxicity Microbiotests ( V. fischeri, T.
thermophila, Daphnia magna,Thamnocephalus
platyrus.), Colembola test (Folsomia candida),
Earth worms test (Eisenia foetida), Lemna minor
test, fish tests Genotoxicity Salmonella
test, Mutatox, micronucleus test, SCE test,
chromosomal abberations 2. Addaptations of
biotests, search/ development of new, very
sensitive, noninvasive biomarkers and their
evaluation for lower doses of pollutants
delayed fluorescence of chlorophyll and nuclear
DNA (sensitive detection of ecological
stress), luminiscence measurements (detects ROS)
GST, SOD, GR, cyt P450 and NRT on invertebrates,
biotests/ biomarkers on higher level of
organisation addaptation of the Comet assay for
eucaryotic microbes and invertebrates
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Possible sollution (final product, service to bi
achieved)
3. Selection of a relevant battery of
biomarkers/biotests for toxicity and and
genotoxicity testing in Alpine and Karst
environments
4. Determinatiom of limit values or MP values
of selected biomarkers/biotests for Alpine
and Karst environments
5. Selection of proper sampling methods for water
and soil samples
6. Maping of Alpine and Karst regions by
physico-chemical analyses and a selected
battery of biomarkers/biotests
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Possible sollution (final product, service to bi
achieved)
7. We shall turn the ecotoxicological data into
information by GIS technology

• Integration of the data
• acquired ecotoxicological data will be added as
  one of the layers
• into the
  existing GIS system and functionally
• integrated with geographical,
  physico-chemical,
• soil type, climate, industrydata/layers
• to buid up
• a dynamic Decision Support System.

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Potential applications of the Ecotoxicology Biotes
ting System and the Decision Support System

• Relevant assessmet of the quality and safety of
  Alpine and Karst
• environments (to detect the environmental stress
  or nonstressed environment)

• Relevant monitoring of the quality and safety
  of Alpine and Karst
• environments and preventing environmental
  stress and degradation

• Promotion of ecofarming and ecoturism in Alpine
  and Karst regions
• (competitive advantage)

- Conservation of biodiversity

• Environmental policy
• Sustainable management of natural resources

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Partners searched for

• The conduction of parallel toxicity and
  genotoxicity biotesting
• and development/ validation/ evaluation of new
  biomarkers/ biotests
• Expertise on EU environmental policy and
  legislation
• Biostatistics and computer modelling
• Risk assessment expertise
• Information technology expertise
• Type of partners University, Research
  Institutions, SME,
• 
  Governmental/Public Administration