Assessment of the effects of nickel on benthic macroinvertebrates in the field

Abstract

A field-based evaluation of the biological effects of potential nickel (Ni) exposures was conducted using monitoring data for benthic macroinvertebrates and water chemistry parameters for streams in England and Wales. Observed benthic community metrics were compared to expected community metrics under reference conditions using RIVPACS III+ software. In order to evaluate relationships between Ni concentrations and benthic community metrics, bioavailable Ni concentrations were also calculated for each site. A limiting effect from Ni on the 90th percentile of the maximum achievable ecological quality was derived at "bioavailable Ni" exposures of 10.3 μg l(-1). As snails have been identified as particularly sensitive to nickel exposure, snail abundance in the field in response to nickel exposure, relative to reference conditions, was also analysed. A "low effects" threshold for snail abundance based on an average of spring and autumn data was derived as 3.9 μg l(-1) bioavailable Ni. There was no apparent effect of Ni exposure on the abundance of Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies) or Tricoptera (caddisflies) when expressed relative to a reference condition within the range of "bioavailable Ni" exposures observed within the dataset. Nickel exposure concentrations co-vary with the concentrations of other stressors in the dataset, and high concentrations of Ni are also associated with elevated concentrations of other contaminants.

Metal contamination in harbours impacts life-history traits and metallothionein levels in snails

“…Since no major point sources of Cu and Zn emissions were located in the vicinity of the study sites, we believe that the levels of these metals reflect inputs from AF paints used on leisure boat hulls. Several studies have also shown a metal release from AF paints in marinas [8,47,48] Such elevated metal concentrations can impact various species inhabiting harbour areas, including snails [49,50]. …”

Ecotoxicity of sediments in rivers: Invertebrate community, toxicity bioassays and the toxic unit approach as complementary assessment tools

“…The Guadalquivir River basin was particularly affected by this element. An excess of Ni have been found to affect survival of algae (Eisler, 1998;Muyssen et al, 2004) and also of some freshwater gastropod species (Peters et al, 2014;Niyogi et al, 2014). The toxicity of Cu and Zn, can be explained by their bactericidal and antimicrobial nature affecting the enzymatic systems.…”

Water quality guidelines for chemicals: learning lessons to deliver meaningful environmental metrics

“…As long ago as 1998 (Warne, 1998) Field-based and functionality-based SSDs may be used to derive WQGs or to provide lines of evidence in weight-of-evidence based approaches (Peters et al 2010;Peters and Simpson 2012). Field-based methods have been developed in the U.S. and Great Britain (Linton et al 2007;Peters et al 2010;Peters et al 2011), but they are new and have not been widely adopted and perhaps should play a greater role in WQG derivation or validation. In Australia and New Zealand (ANZECC/ARMCANZ, 2000a,b), unlike in other jurisdictions the highest quality WQGs are considered to be those derived directly using field, meso-or microcosm derived data, although, as yet, there are no such instances of guidelines being derived on this basis.…”

“…There are several examples of using these types of data to validate WQGs Linton et al 2007;Peters et al 2010). The applicability of such tools and approaches outside Europe and the US, however, requires further investigation.…”