An index of effluent aquatic toxicity designed by partial least squares regression, using acute and chronic tests and expert judgments
The evaluation of the ecotoxicity of effluents requires a battery of biological tests on several species. In order to derive a summary parameter from such a battery, a single endpoint was calculated for all the tests: the EC10, obtained by nonlinear regression, with bootstrap evaluation of the confidence intervals. Principal component analysis was used to characterize and visualize the correlation between the tests. The table of the toxicity of the effluents was then submitted to a panel of experts, who classified the effluents according to the test results. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to fit the average value of the experts' judgments to the toxicity data, using a simple equation. Furthermore, PLS regression on partial data sets and other considerations resulted in an optimum battery, with two chronic tests and one acute test. The index is intended to be used for the classification of effluents based on their toxicity to aquatic species.
- Research Organization:
- Inst. National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques, Verneuil en Halatte (FR)
- OSTI ID:
- 20006607
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 18, Issue 10; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1999; ISSN 0730-7268
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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