ABSTRACT

The importance of the relationship between public health and aquatic ecosystem health has increased exponentially due to the growing number of human population living in coastal areas, especially in tropical and subtropical regions. In addition, the conservation of aquatic ecosystems is also more economically profitable than the economic value derived from the acquisition and use of its resources, which generally results in severe environmental liabilities. Thus, management and conservation actions of natural resources are extremely important, and information on the toxic effects of chemical pollutants in aquatic ecosystems would serve to anticipate the impact of environmental contamination in the biota and may assist in mitigating harmful effects on human health, directly linked to public health issues. In this context, proteins, metalloproteins and enzymes show high biomarker potential that can be applied in biomonitoring and in the evaluation of the efficiency of the procedures adopted to reduce impacts, also serving as a basis for decision-making regarding risk analysis to human health. This chapter, thus, discusses the contributions that environmental proteomics and metalloproteomics may add to aquatic toxicology and public health.