New rotifer bioassays for aquatic toxicology. Final report, 16 November 1988-1 June 1991

Technical Report · Mon Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:6753281

Snell, T W

A standard protocol was developed for assessing acute toxicity using the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. This protocol has several advantages over existing methods in that test animals are obtained by hatching dormant cysts, the test is highly reproducible, it has a low failure rate, and has good sensitivity to a variety of common pollutants. Cyst age up to 18 months had no effect on test animal response to toxicants. LC50s for copper and pentachlorophenol (PCP) were lower at 10 deg C and 30 deg C than at 20 deg C. B. calyciflorus LC50s were a good predictor of Daphnia magna and fathead minnow LC50s for eight common toxicants. A standard protocol using B. calyciflorus for estimating chronic toxicity of compounds in freshwater has been developed. The rotifer chronic test has several advantages over existing tests including: test animals are obtained from cysts, the test takes only 48 hours to complete, a simple algal food is sufficient for good rotifer reproduction and algae is obtained from a petri dish, the test has good sensitivity to a wide variety of common toxicants. Acute and chronic toxicity of trinitrotoluene has been characterized. The LC50 is 9.1 mg.L-1, the chronic value is 3.3 mg.L-1 and the acute/chronic ratio is 2.8, suggesting that TNT is only weakly chronically toxic. The effects of temperature on rotifer chronic toxicity over the 20 deg-30 deg C range were small.

• Research Organization: Tampa Univ., FL (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6753281
• Report Number(s): AD-A-258002/5/XAB; CNN: DAMD17-89-Z-9008
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
550200 -- Biochemistry
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ALGAE
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
ARTHROPODS
BIOASSAY
BIOLOGY
BRANCHIOPODS
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIVES
COPPER
CRUSTACEANS
CYSTS
DAPHNIA
ECOLOGY
ELEMENTS
EVALUATION
EXPLOSIVES
FATHEAD MINNOW
FISHES
FOOD
FRESH WATER
HATCHING
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INVERTEBRATES
LABORATORY ANIMALS
METALS
NITRO COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES
PLANTS
POLLUTANTS
POLLUTION
REPRODUCTION
SENSITIVITY
STANDARDS
TNT
TOXICITY
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
VERTEBRATES
WATER
WATER POLLUTION