The use of a test battery in marine ecotoxicology: the acute toxicity of sodium dodecyl sulfate.
For a toxicity assessment of substances entering the marine environment, it is preferable to carry out ecotoxicological tests on a base-set of taxa utilizing target species belonging to different trophic levels. In this study a battery composed of Vibrio fischeri (bacteria), Dunaliella tertiolecta (algae), Tigriopus fulvus (crustacea), Paracentrotus lividus (echinodermata), and Dicentrarchus labrax (pisces) was used for acute toxicity testing of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). SDS is an anionic surfactant widely employed in industry, agriculture, and domestic usage and therefore is found in abundance in the environment, particularly in the sea. The mean values of EC50 obtained were 2.6, 4.8, 7.4, 3.2, 7.3 mg L(-1), respectively, for V. fischeri, D. tertiolecta, T. fulvus, P. lividus, and D. labrax. The results indicate the high acute toxicity of SDS with respect to all the trophic levels represented by the target species. In addition, they highlight the usefulness of employing a base-set of taxa rather than a single species in toxicological tests, in order to obtain more reliable information for the evaluation of toxicity and potential hazards to the marine environment of selected substances.
Mariani
Livia
L
ICRAM, Central Institute for Applied Marine Research, Via di Casalotti 300, 00166 Roma, Italy. l.mariani@icram.org
De Pascale
Domenica
D
Faraponova
Olga
O
Tornambè
Andrea
A
Sarni
Angela
A
Giuliani
Silvia
S
Ruggiero
Giordano
G
Onorati
Fulvio
F
Magaletti
Erika
E
D048908:Aliivibrio fischeri / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D001492:Bass / Q000502:physiology; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000187:drug effects; D033342:Copepoda / Q000187:drug effects; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D047328:Paracentrotus / Q000187:drug effects; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate / Q000633:toxicity*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate