M.Sc. / Developments in the catchment area of the Olifants River, such as poor agricultural practices and overgrazing, caused increased amounts of erosion material to enter the river. This leads to the silting up of the Phalaborwa Barrage, situated in the river, on the border of the Kruger National Park. Because of the occasional flushing of the Barrage, in order to retain storage capacity, the Olifants River inside the Kruger National Park is subjected to very high sediment loads. This has led to poor water quality and subsequent fish mortalities. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the possible effects of silt loads released from the Barrage on the survival of selected life stages of Oreochromis mossambicus. Silt was collected from the Phalaborwa Barrage, and the silt/fish interaction was invesigated under controlled laboratory conditions. Oreochromis mossambicus was exposed to various silt concentrations for different exposure periods to determine the LC50 and sub-lethal concentration ranges. After determination of sub-lethal values, 0. mossambicus was exposed to these concentrations to determine whether they have any effects on the oxygen consumption and selected haematological parameters of exposed fish. Lethal levels for suspended sediment are interrelated with age differences of the fish, particle size of the suspended sediment and concentration. Increased suspended sediment disrupted activity and respiratory patterns, changed orientation responses and ultimately resulted in the death of the fish. The gills and the opercular cavities of the dead fish were usually clogged with a thick layer of mucus and silt. The laboratory experiments revealed that LC5 0 values for 0. mossambicus ranged from 26,78 to 54,20g silt/1 for larvae, 35,10 to 39,20g silt/1 for juveniles and 32,93 to 35,43g silt/1 for adult fish. The larval stage was generally less tolerant of suspended silt than juveniles and adults. Sub-lethal levels for adult fish ranged from 0 to 27g silt/l, where no mortalities occurred. Exposure of adult fish to sub-lethal concentrations of silt did alter routine oxygen consumption by causing increased rates (9 to 330% from initial) of oxygen consumption. This indicates that sub-lethal levels of suspended silt concentrations result in an increase in oxygen consumption by the fish due to an increase in metabolic rate associated with increased activity and stress. Silt exposure Exposure of adult fish to sub-lethal silt concentrations (<20g silt/l) resulted in increases in haemotocrit, red blood cell counts, white blood cell counts and blood glucose concentrations, but decreases in haemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume when compared to that for the control fish. These differences became more apparent as the silt exposure concentration increased with statistically significant differences (P<0.05) between most of the selected
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3428 |
| Date | 30 August 2012 |
| Creators | Smit, L. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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