Due to rising salinity of freshwater systems and the lack of information about contaminants in saltwater lakes, there is a need for new methods to identify stressors in saline environments. Much like Daphnia magna are used as an indicator for stress in freshwater systems, we use Artemia salinas as an indicator species for studying saltwater stress. Artemia salinas, also known as brine shrimp, is an aquatic crustacean that is adapted to highly saline environments, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. We have developed an analytical method to assess the impact of aquatic pollutants on brine shrimp using environmental metabolomics. Brine shrimp are an ideal indicator species because they are inexpensive and simple to work with, they have short life-cycles, and are robust. Their hemolymph (blood) has a high concentration of small molecules metabolites in an open circulatory system that is susceptible to environmental conditions. By applying a combination of instrumental methods, such as GC-MS, NMR, and high-content imaging, with statistical analysis we have been able to characterize the effect of both well-studied contaminants, such as Roundup ®, and emerging contaminants, such as the organophosphate flame retardant tris(dichloroisopropyl)phosphate (TDCIPP) on the metabolome and development of Artemia. This environmental metabolomics method with Artemia can be applied both in situ and in vitro and is a powerful tool for identifying biological modes of action of saltwater contaminants.

Artemia as an indicator for stress in saltwater lakes

255th National Meeting (2018)

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