title: Tolerance to Ammonia of Thulinius ruffoi (Bertolani, 1981), a Tardigrade Isolated from a Sewage Treatment Plant.
abstract: The acute toxicity of ammonia on Thulinius ruffoi (Bertolani, 1981), a eutardigrade isolated from a small waste water treatment plant (WWTP) in Poland, was estimated. Our results show that no active individuals survived a 24 h exposure to solutions equal to or higher than 125 mg/L of total ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N + NH4 (+)-N), which, under the conditions in our experiment, was equivalent to 1.17 mg/L of un-ionised ammonia (NH3). The LC50 concentration of total ammonia nitrogen was equal to 52 mg/L (or 0.65 mg/L un-ionised ammonia). Given that the norms for the concentration of ammonia in treated waters leaving WWTPs are usually several times lower than the LC50 for T. ruffoi, this species does not seem to be a good bioindicator candidate for WWTPs. In this paper we also note that various ecotoxicological studies use different methodological approaches and we suggest that a more uniform methodology may aid interspecific comparisons of LC50 values.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387, Kraków, Poland. mateusz.sobczyk@uj.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Mateusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sobczyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Klaudia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Michno
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.|Department of Entomology, Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Paulina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kosztyła
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stec
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Łukasz
authors.initials: Ł
authors.lastname: Michalczyk
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D011044:Poland; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry*; D058467:Tardigrada / Q000187:drug effects*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000641:Ammonia; D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Acute toxicity; LC50; NH3; NH4 +; Tardigrada