Polychaetes as bioindicators of water quality in the Saguenay Fjord (Quebec, Canada): a preliminary investigation

The Saguenay Fjord, a key affluent of the StLawrence River estuary (SLRE), is prone to environmental pressures stemming from mixed and diffuse sources of (in)organic contamination, and has been studied extensively with bivalves as indicators of water quality. Overall, measurements generated with batteries of biomarkers have shown site-specific effects impacting animal health (i.e., Mya arenaria soft-shell clams and Mytilus edulis mussels) which have included immunotoxicity, reprotoxicity, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, as well as growth inhibition and decreased energy reserves.1 In contrast to molluscan shellfish, polychaetes, abundant in, and at the mouth of, the Saguenay Fjord, have seldom been evaluated in this aquatic environment, although recent reports suggests that they can be useful indicators to conduct ecotoxicological studies.2,3 As a preliminary step in considering possible future research prospects with these benthic animals, we collected Nereis sp. from two sites (i.e., one reference and one contaminantimpacted intertidal zone) located in the SLRE near the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord to take note of their relative abundance, size and tissue metal content profile.