Standardized methods for acute and semichronic toxicity tests with the copepod Acartia tonsa.
The availability of standardized protocols for both organism culture and bioassay with ecologically relevant species is of great concern in ecotoxicology. Acartia tonsa represents an important, often dominant, member of zooplankton communities and meets all the practical criteria suggested for model species. New standardized procedures for laboratory culturing of the copepod A. tonsa and standardized methods for acute (24- and 48-h) and semichronic (7-d, static-renewal) toxicity tests with the nauplius stage are described. In both cases, eggs are the starting stage, and nauplius immobilization is the endpoint. The methods were the object of an intercomparison test involving nine laboratories, and nickel was the reference toxicant. Relative reproducibility was 24, 25, and 34% for 24-h, 48-h, and 7-d tests, respectively.
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy. gessica.gorbi@unipr.it
Gessica
G
Gorbi
Marion
M
Invidia
Federica
F
Savorelli
Olga
O
Faraponova
Elisabetta
E
Giacco
Monica
M
Cigar
Isabella
I
Buttino
Tristano
T
Leoni
Ermelinda
E
Prato
Ines
I
Lacchetti
Sandra
S
Sei
D000818:Animals; D033342:Copepoda / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008018:Life Cycle Stages / Q000187:drug effects; D009532:Nickel / Q000633:toxicity; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012098:Reproduction / Q000187:drug effects; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute / Q000592:standards; D059550:Toxicity Tests, Subchronic / Q000592:standards; D015048:Zooplankton
D009532:Nickel