“…Acute tests, probably due to their faster, cheaper, and in general easier protocols, have been employed more often than chronic tests, basically applying the immobilization test in the microcrustacean Daphnia magna , , mortality tests in the earthworm Eisenia andrei , the annelid worm Enchytraeus crypticus , and the springtail Folsomia candida − as well as the inhibition of bioluminescence in Vibrio fischeri . Chronic assays so far applied include reproduction tests in the same organisms used for acute determinations, and metabolic alterations in the fish Oreochromis aureus ; ,, similarly, phytotoxicity determined by germination tests in the plant Lactuca sativa has been seldom applied. ,,,, Alternative approaches such as the use of pesticide toxicity index (PTI), which employs ecotoxicological parameters from aquatic indicator species (i.e., vascular and nonvascular plants, invertebrates, and fish) rather than direct tests, have been used to determine detoxification of BPS effluents. As expected, the usefulness of these benchmark organisms depends on the functional nature of the pesticides removed in the BPS; i.e., the daphnids are expected to be more sensitive to insecticides, and the phytotoxicity tests are more appropriate for herbicides.…”