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Water Chemistry and Smallmouth Bass Biological Data from Pine Creek and West Branch Mahantango Creek, Pennsylvania, 2015-2019

Metadata Updated: September 13, 2024

Monitoring wild fish health and associated exposure effects in regions where agriculture and development have impacted rivers and streams has become a valuable research tool. Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) are a sensitive, indicator species that exhibit symptoms of immunosupression and endocrine disruption in response to water quality changes and contaminant exposure. In the Susquehanna River drainage, smallmouth bass have been used in biomonitoring assessments to help understand changes in the population due to poor young-of-the-year recruitment and health effects. To help determine effects of agriculture and development on smallmouth bass health, two sites (a developed/agriculture site and a forested site) were selected where bass and water chemistry were sampled from 2015-2019. Bass were sampled for histopathology to assess parasite and macrophage aggregate density in the liver and spleen, condition factor (Ktl), hepatic gene transcripts (immune function, oxidative stress, cell proliferation, stress, and contaminant, thyroid, and insulin/pancreas metabolism), hepatosomatic index (HSI), and a health assessment index (HAI). Land use at the developed/agricultural site included greater pesticide application rates and % high phytoestrogen crop cover and there were more detections and higher concentrations of pesticides, wastewater-associated contaminants, hormones, phytoestrogens, and mycotoxins than at the forested site. Additionally at this site, oxidative stress, lipid metabolism, and thyroid-related hepatic gene transcripts were associated with contaminants/land use applications; whereas at the forested site there were far fewer associations. At both sites, there were multiple associations of contaminants/land use applications with biological variables (HSI, Ktl, and liver and spleen macrophage aggregate density), which may indicate that changes at the molecular level may be a better indicator of exposure effects unique to each site. This work will help to understand the importance of timing for land management practices, how contaminants change temporally, and that agricultural practices affect hepatic gene transcripts associated with immune function and disease resistance and may negatively affect the health of smallmouth bass.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2024
Metadata Updated Date September 13, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2024
Metadata Updated Date September 13, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
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Identifier USGS:65d4dbcdd34ec3e1801d07a3
Data Last Modified 20240911
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 448b0f9e-fa21-48c3-9f08-2e95f7028fc6
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -80.52,39.71,-74.69,42.26
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 44cf25b5af3ae0d5bb23a921e4ddd316f39026499a6990638370a0fc132ed2c1
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -80.52, 39.71, -80.52, 42.26, -74.69, 42.26, -74.69, 39.71, -80.52, 39.71}

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