title: Effect-directed analysis supporting monitoring of aquatic environments--An in-depth overview.
abstract: Aquatic environments are often contaminated with complex mixtures of chemicals that may pose a risk to ecosystems and human health. This contamination cannot be addressed with target analysis alone but tools are required to reduce this complexity and identify those chemicals that might cause adverse effects. Effect-directed analysis (EDA) is designed to meet this challenge and faces increasing interest in water and sediment quality monitoring. Thus, the present paper summarizes current experience with the EDA approach and the tools required, and provides practical advice on their application. The paper highlights the need for proper problem formulation and gives general advice for study design. As the EDA approach is directed by toxicity, basic principles for the selection of bioassays are given as well as a comprehensive compilation of appropriate assays, including their strengths and weaknesses. A specific focus is given to strategies for sampling, extraction and bioassay dosing since they strongly impact prioritization of toxicants in EDA. Reduction of sample complexity mainly relies on fractionation procedures, which are discussed in this paper, including quality assurance and quality control. Automated combinations of fractionation, biotesting and chemical analysis using so-called hyphenated tools can enhance the throughput and might reduce the risk of artifacts in laboratory work. The key to determining the chemical structures causing effects is analytical toxicant identification. The latest approaches, tools, software and databases for target-, suspect and non-target screening as well as unknown identification are discussed together with analytical and toxicological confirmation approaches. A better understanding of optimal use and combination of EDA tools will help to design efficient and successful toxicant identification studies in the context of quality monitoring in multiply stressed environments.
authors.affiliation: UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Brack
authors.affiliation: Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques INERIS, BP2, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatte, France.
authors.forename: Selim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ait-Aissa
authors.affiliation: US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.affiliation: UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Wibke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Busch
authors.affiliation: Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques INERIS, BP2, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatte, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Creusot
authors.affiliation: RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Paolo
authors.affiliation: UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Beate I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Escher
authors.affiliation: Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario L7S 1A1, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mark Hewitt
authors.affiliation: Masaryk University, Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX), Kamenice 753/5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hilscherova
authors.affiliation: Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hollender
authors.affiliation: RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Henner
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hollert
authors.affiliation: VU University, BioMolecular Analysis Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Willem
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jonker
authors.affiliation: VU University, BioMolecular Analysis Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kool
authors.affiliation: VU Amsterdam, Institute for Environmental Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lamoree
authors.affiliation: UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muschket
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.affiliation: NILU - Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Instituttveien 18, 2007 Kjeller, Norway.
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rostkowski
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruttkies
authors.affiliation: Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schollee
authors.affiliation: Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Emma L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Schymanski
authors.affiliation: UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schulze
authors.affiliation: RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas-Benjamin
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Seiler
authors.affiliation: WatchFrag, Bâtiment Genavenir 3, 1 Rue Pierre Fontaine, 91000 Evry, France.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Tindall
authors.affiliation: University of Campinas, Limeira, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gisela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Aragão Umbuzeiro
authors.affiliation: Masaryk University, Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX), Kamenice 753/5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Branislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vrana
authors.affiliation: UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krauss
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000032:analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances
keywords: Bioassay; Dosing; Enrichment; Fractionation; Non-target analysis; Toxicant identification