Occurrence, sources and effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Tunis lagoon, Tunisia: an integrated approach using multi-level biological responses in Ruditapes decussatus

Coastal lagoons are critical ecosystems presenting a strategic economic importance, but they are subjected to potential anthropogenic impact. As part of the Tunis lagoon (Tunisia) biomonitoring study, levels, composition pattern and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments along with their bioavailability in clam Ruditapes decussatus were investigated in polluted (S2–S4) and reference (S1) sites. In order to investigate the contamination effects at different biological levels in clams, a wide set of biomarkers, including gene expression changes, enzymatic activities disruption and histopathological alterations, was analysed. Biomarkers were integrated in a biomarker index (IBR index) to allow a global assessment of the biological response. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used for chemical and biological data integration to rank the sampling sites according to their global environmental quality. Sediment PAHs levels ranged between 144.5 and 3887.0 ng g −1 dw in the Tunis lagoon sites versus 92.6 ng g −1 dw in the reference site. The high PAH concentrations are due to anthropogenic activities around the lagoon. PAH composition profiles and diagnostic isomer ratios analysis indicated that PAHs were of both pyrolitic and petrogenic origins. Clams sampled from S2 and S3 exhibited the highest PAH contents with 2192.6 ng g −1 dw and 2371.4 ng g −1 dw, respectively. Elevated levels of tissue PAHs were associated to an increase in biotransformation and antioxidant activities, and lipid peroxidation levels along with an overexpression of different genes encoding for general stress response, mitochondrial metabolism and antioxidant defence, in addition to the emergence of severe and diverse histopathological alterations in the clams’ digestive glands. IBR index was suitable for sampling sites ranking (S1 = 0 < S4 = 0.4 < S3 = 1.15 < S2 = 1.27) based on the level of PAH-induced stress in clams. PCA approach produced two components (PC1, 83.8% and PC2, 12.2%) that describe 96% of the variance in the data and thus highlighted the importance of integrating contaminants in sediments, their bioaccumulation and a battery of biomarkers of different dimensions for the assessment of global health status of coastal and lagoon areas.