No abstract

A cost-effective testing procedure is described that measures the acute aquatic effects of a single test chemical on seven aquatic species simultaneously: Asellus intermedius (pillbug), Daphnia magna (water flea), Dugesia tigrina (flatworm), Gammarus fasciatus (sideswimmer), Helisoma trivolvis (snail), Lumbriculus variegatus (segmented worm) and Pimephales promelas (fathead minnow). These species were chosen because of their ecological importance, diversity and amenability to laboratory culturing. Twenty-seven commercial inorganic and organic chemicals were tested using the simultaneous exposure procedure. The 96-h LC50 values were derived for each species and the results compared with literature values. The reproducibility of the results achieved using this testing procedure was shown to be very good. The results compare favorably with 96-h LC50 values from single-species tests.The susceptibility of test animals as a function of species and chemical compound was evaluated. Water fleas were found to be as susceptible as, or more so than, the other aquatic organisms for all compounds tested. The relative sensitivities of the other test species were found to be highly chemical dependent.

A cost‐effective testing procedure is described that measures the acute aquatic effects of a single test chemical on seven aquatic species simultaneously: Asellus intermedius (pillbug), Daphnia magna (water flea), Dugesia tigrina (flatworm), Gammarus fasciatus (sideswimmer), Helisoma trivolvis (snail), Lumbriculus variegatus (segmented worm) and Pimephales promelas (fathead minnow). These species were chosen because of their ecological importance, diversity and amenability to laboratory culturing. Twenty‐seven commercial inorganic and organic chemicals were tested using the simultaneous exposure procedure. The 96‐h LC50 values were derived for each species and the results compared with literature values. The reproducibility of the results achieved using this testing procedure was shown to be very good. The results compare favorably with 96‐h LC50 values from single‐species tests. The susceptibility of test animals as a function of species and chemical compound was evaluated. Water fleas were found to be as susceptible as, or more so than, the other aquatic organisms for all compounds tested. The relative sensitivities of the other test species were found to be highly chemical dependent.