Acute lethal toxicity of some reference chemicals to freshwater fishes of Scandinavia

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987 · Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01691784· OSTI ID:5550440

Oikari, A O.J.

Relevance of the choice of a test organism intended to be representative for a given environment seems to be under continual debate in aquatic ecotoxicology. For instance, it is commonly argue that acute toxicity tests with rainbow trout, the species most often recommended as a standard cold water teleost, were not representative for Nordic countries because the species is an alien in local faunas. A comparative study with several freshwater species was therefore initiated to clarify the validity of this assumption. As a first approximation, standard LC 50 assays were conducted. The species used were chosen only on the basis of their local availability, i.e, they randomly represented the fish fauna of Nordic inland waters. Furthermore, inter-species variation of toxicity response was compared with certain other, quantitatively more important, intra-species sources of variability affecting the toxicity of chemicals. Use of reference toxicants has been recommended as a means of standardizing bioassays. Compounds, characteristic of effluents from the pulp and paper industry, were selected for the present study. The toxicity of organic acids such a phenols and resin acids, as well as that of pupmill effluents, strongly depends on water pH. Because of the possibility that species differences could exist in this respect, effects of water acidity on toxicity of these types of substances to a randomly selected local species was investigated. Finally, as an example of the biological source of assay variability, the effect of yolk absorption was studied with a subsequent crisis period due to moderate starvation under laboratory conditions.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Joensuu, Finland
• OSTI ID: 5550440
• Journal Information: Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol.; (United States), Vol. 39:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ORGANIC ACIDS
TOXICITY
PH VALUE
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
PHENOLS
BIOASSAY
DIET
FISHES
FRESH WATER
MORTALITY
SCANDINAVIA
TROUT
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
AROMATICS
EUROPE
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
VERTEBRATES
WATER
WESTERN EUROPE
560300* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology