Literature review on the sensitivity and exposure of marine and estuarine organisms to pesticides in comparison to corresponding fresh water species

Abstract

To compare the sensitivity and exposure of marine and estuarine species (further noted as saltwater) to pesticides to those of freshwater species we searched the peer reviewed literature. Relevant literature references were assembled in two EndNote libraries, one on saltwater species, and one on freshwater species, comprising a total of 3627 references. Based on an extensive toxicity database and the EndNote libraries we developed Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSDs) to assess differences in sensitivity. Furthermore we compared the toxicity (L(E)C50) of all pesticides for which more than two species were tested both for salt and freshwater. To assess differences in exposure we compared literature on pesticide level and persistence.The results on sensitivity indicated that there is no systematic difference in sensitivity to pesticides between fresh and saltwater species. For some pesticides either saltwater or freshwater organisms may be more sensitive. We found such an effect for trifluralin (saltwater species more sensitive) and parathion and HEOD (freshwater species more sensitive). Also, comparison within taxonomic groups showed no systematic difference of saltwater compared to freshwater species. When comparing all available species data within taxonomic groups, some saltwater groups showed higher sensitivity to specific pesticides compared to their freshwater representatives, e.g. saltwater molluscs were more sensitive to methoxychlor compared to freshwater molluscs. Whereas, freshwater arthropoda were more sensitive than saltwater anthropoda for copper sulphate and parathion.The results on exposure show that pesticides tend to have higher levels in surface water of freshwater compared to the saltwater environments. Such inference could not be made for sediments since the amount of available data was limited. However, based on general insights in persistence and absorption capacity there seems to be a strong indication that very persistent pesticides with a very high absorption capacity (e.g. DDT) tend to accumulate in saltwater sediments.

Are acute and chronic saltwater fish studies required for plant protection and biocidal product active substance risk assessment?

“…The results of the present analysis are consistent with earlier analyses of freshwater and saltwater sensitivity to chemicals [2][3][4][5][6][7]. They show that saltwater fish species are generally no more sensitive than freshwater species and that when they are more sensitive to a plant protection or biocidal product active substance, the difference in sensitivity is usually less than a factor of 10.…”

“…Earlier reports suggested that freshwater fish test results are broadly predictive (within a factor of approximately 10) of effects on saltwater fish , based mainly on short‐term lethal data rather than on longer‐term studies. For example, Wheeler et al , building on work by Leung et al , compared species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) for freshwater and saltwater median lethal concentration (LC50) values for 21 substances, including 7 plant protection product active substances (chlordane, chlorpyrifos, dieldrin, endosulfan, lindane, malathion, and thiobencarb).…”

“…Recently, Klok et al developed SSDs from literature values for 29 plant protection product active substances for which there were 10 or more acute LC50 and median effective concentration (EC50) values for both freshwater and saltwater species. They also specifically compared the short‐term toxicity of all plant protection product active substances for which more than 2 species were tested for both saltwater and freshwater.…”

Quality Standard Setting and Environmental Monitoring

“…Examples of substances (ammonia, pyrethroid insecticides, organometallics, metals) for which toxicity is different are provided in Matthiessen et al (2010). On the other hand, a recent literature review (Klok et al, 2012) based on 3627 references concludes that there is no systematic difference in sensitivity to pesticides between fresh-and salt-water species. However, at least in the European strategy, seawater AFs are consistently higher than freshwater AFs because fewer marine data are available (Tables 2.1 and 2.2).…”

Toxicity responses for marine invertebrate species of brazilian occurrence

“…In addition to the lack of representative species, toxicity assessments often depend on the results of toxicity tests performed with temperate species, as data on tropical species are scarce (Kwok et al, 2007). Risk assessments performed for tropical ecosystems should be based on toxicity data from tropical species, since differences in sensitivity might be expected (Daam & Brink, 2010;Klok et al, 2012).…”