Treading Water: Tire Wear Particle Leachate Recreates an Urban Runoff Mortality Syndrome in Coho but Not Chum Salmon
Jenifer K. McIntyre, Jasmine Prat, James Cameron, Jillian Wetzel, Emma Mudrock, Katherine T. Peter, Zhenyu Tian, Cailin Mackenzie, Jessica I. Lundin, John D. Stark, Kennith King, J. W. Davis, Edward P. Kolodziej, Nathaniel L. Scholz
Abstract
) lack an equivalent response. Acute mortality of juvenile coho was recently experimentally linked to a transformation product of a tire-derived chemical. We evaluated whether TWP leachate is sufficient to trigger the acute mortality syndrome in adult coho salmon. We characterized the acute response of adult coho and chum salmon to TWP leachate (survival, behavior, blood physiology) and compared it with that caused by roadway runoff. TWP leachate was acutely lethal to coho at concentrations similar to roadway runoff, with the same behaviors and blood parameters impacted. As with runoff, chum salmon appeared insensitive to TWP leachate at concentrations lethal to coho. Our results confirm that environmentally relevant TWP exposures cause acute mortalities of a keystone aquatic species.