title: Daphniatox - Online monitoring of aquatic pollution and toxic substances.
abstract: The microcrustacean Daphnia is sensitive to many toxic substances and can be cultured easily. The Daphniatox instrument is based on computerized image analysis tracking swimming organisms in real time. The software evaluates 14 endpoints including motility, swimming velocity, orientation with respect to light and gravity as well as cell form and size. The system determines movement vectors of a large number of organisms to warrant high statistical significance and calculates mean values as well as standard deviation. Tests with K dichromate show that the toxin inhibits motility (EC500.75 mg/L), swimming velocity (EC500.70 mg/L) and even causes a significant decrease in length (16% at 4 mg/L) and changes the form of the animals, This bioassay can be used to monitor the toxicity of a large number of dissolved pollutants and toxic substances such as arsenic, dichromate and persistent organic pollutants.
authors.affiliation: Emeritus from Friedrich-Alexander University, Department of Biology, Neue Str. 9, 91096, Möhrendorf, Germany. Electronic address: donat@dphaeder.de.
authors.forename: Donat-P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Häder
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Joinville Region - UNIVILLE, Rua Paulo Malschitzki, 10 Campus - Industrial Zone, PO Box 246, Joinville, SC, CEP 89219-710, Brazil. Electronic address: gerzinger47@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gilmar S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Erzinger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D003621:Daphnia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000187:drug effects; D012984:Software; D013550:Swimming; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Aquatic ecosystems; Biomonitoring; Daphnia; Daphniatox; Pollutants