ABSTRACT
Climate change has had signifi cant impacts on the aquatic ecosystems, including changes of hydrological and hydrochemical properties of water and sediments and biota (Thomas et al., 2004). Of particular concern are estuarine and coastal environments, which is fed by diminishing snow pack runoff leading to gradual increases in salinity. Salinity enhances the acute toxicity of several agricultural chemicals in fi sh through augmented biochemical activation catalyzed by enzymes that are induced during hypersaline acclimation. In addition, increase in biogen concentration together with the increasing temperature stimulates microalgae bloom and eutrophication and anoxia/hypoxia which provoke very negative consequences for water bodies, fi sh and invertebrates. Given the rapid changes taking place in the world’s waterways, environmental modifi cation of toxicological pathways should be a signifi cant focus of the research community as the toxicity of multiple xenobiotics may be enhanced (Schlenk and Lavado, 2011).
