Assessing contaminant sensitivity of endangered and threatened aquatic species: part III. Effluent toxicity tests.

Toxicity tests using standard effluent test procedures described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were conducted with Ceriodaphnia dubia, fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), and seven threatened and endangered (listed) fish species from four families: (1) Acipenseridae: shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum); (2) Catostomidae; razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus); (3) Cyprinidae: bonytail chub (Gila elegans), Cape Fear shiner (Notropis mekistocholas) Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), and spotfin chub (Cyprinella monacha); and (4) Poecillidae: Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis occidentalis). We conducted 7-day survival and growth studies with embryo-larval fathead minnows and analogous exposures using the listed species. Survival and reproduction were also determined with C. dubia. Tests were conducted with carbaryl, ammonia--or a simulated effluent complex mixture of carbaryl, copper, 4-nonylphenol, pentachlorophenol and permethrin at equitoxic proportions. In addition, Cape Fear shiners and spotfin chub were tested using diazinon, copper, and chlorine. Toxicity tests were also conducted with field-collected effluents from domestic or industrial facilities. Bonytail chub and razorback suckers were tested with effluents collected in Arizona whereas effluent samples collected from North Carolina were tested with Cape Fear shiner, spotfin chub, and shortnose sturgeon. The fathead minnow 7-day effluent test was often a reliable estimator of toxic effects to the listed fishes. However, in 21 % of the tests, a listed species was more sensitive than fathead minnows. More sensitive species results varied by test so that usually no species was always more or less sensitive than fathead minnows. Only the Gila topminnow was consistently less sensitive than the fathead minnow. Listed fish species were protected 96% of the time when results for both fathead minnows and C. dubia were considered, thus reinforcing the value of standard whole-effluent toxicity tests using those two species. If the responses of specific listed species are important for management decisions, our study supports the value in developing culture and testing procedures for those species.

Assessing contaminant sensitivity of endangered and threatened aquatic species: part I. Acute toxicity of five chemicals.

Assessment of contaminant impacts to federally identified endangered, threatened and candidate, and state-identified endangered species (collectively referred to as "listed" species) requires understanding of a species' sensitivities to particular chemicals. The most direct approach would be to determine the sensitivity of a listed species to a particular contaminant or perturbation. An indirect approach for aquatic species would be application of toxicity data obtained from standard test procedures and species commonly used in laboratory toxicity tests. Common test species (fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas; sheepshead minnow, Cyprinodon variegatus; and rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss) and 17 listed or closely related species were tested in acute 96-hour water exposures with five chemicals (carbaryl, copper, 4-nonylphenol, pentachlorophenol, and permethrin) representing a broad range of toxic modes of action. No single species was the most sensitive to all chemicals. For the three standard test species evaluated, the rainbow trout was more sensitive than either the fathead minnow or sheepshead minnow and was equal to or more sensitive than listed and related species 81% of the time. To estimate an LC50 for a listed species, a factor of 0.63 can be applied to the geometric mean LC50 of rainbow trout toxicity data, and more conservative factors can be determined using variance estimates (0.46 based on 1 SD of the mean and 0.33 based on 2 SD of the mean). Additionally, a low- or no-acute effect concentration can be estimated by multiplying the respective LC50 by a factor of approximately 0.56, which supports the United States Environmental Protection Agency approach of multiplying the final acute value by 0.5 (division by 2). When captive or locally abundant populations of listed fish are available, consideration should be given to direct testing. When direct toxicity testing cannot be performed, approaches for developing protective measures using common test species toxicity data are available.

Assessing contaminant sensitivity of endangered and threatened aquatic species: part II. Chronic toxicity of copper and pentachlorophenol to two endangered species and two surrogate species.

Early life-stage toxicity tests with copper and pentachlorophenol (PCP) were conducted with two species listed under the United States Endangered Species Act (the endangered fountain darter, Etheostoma fonticola, and the threatened spotfin chub, Cyprinella monacha) and two commonly tested species (fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas, and rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss). Results were compared using lowest-observed effect concentrations (LOECs) based on statistical hypothesis tests and by point estimates derived by linear interpolation and logistic regression. Sublethal end points, growth (mean individual dry weight) and biomass (total dry weight per replicate) were usually more sensitive than survival. The biomass end point was equally sensitive as growth and had less among-test variation. Effect concentrations based on linear interpolation were less variable than LOECs, which corresponded to effects ranging from 9% to 76% relative to controls and were consistent with thresholds based on logistic regression. Fountain darter was the most sensitive species for both chemicals tested, with effect concentrations for biomass at < or = 11 microg/L (LOEC and 25% inhibition concentration [IC25]) for copper and at 21 microg/L (IC25) for PCP, but spotfin chub was no more sensitive than the commonly tested species. Effect concentrations for fountain darter were lower than current chronic water quality criteria for both copper and PCP. Protectiveness of chronic water-quality criteria for threatened and endangered species could be improved by the use of safety factors or by conducting additional chronic toxicity tests with species and chemicals of concern.

Contaminant sensitivity of threatened and endangered fishes compared to standard surrogate species.

Standard environmental assessment procedures are designed to protect terrestrial and aquatic species. However, it is not known if endangered species are adequately protected by these procedures. At present, toxicological data obtained from studies with surrogate test fishes are assumed to be applicable to endangered fish species, but this assumption has not been validated. Static acute toxicity tests were used to compare the sensitivity of rainbow trout, fathead minnows, and sheepshead minnows to several federally listed fishes (Apache trout, Lahontan cutthroat trout, greenback cutthroat trout, bonytail chub, Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker, Leon Springs pupfish, and desert pupfish). Chemicals tested included carbaryl, copper, 4-nonylphenol, pentachlorophenol, and permethrin. Results indicated that the surrogates and listed species were of similar sensitivity. In two cases, a listed species had a 96-h LC50 (lethal concentration to 50% of the population) that was less than one half of its corresponding surrogate. In all other cases, differences between listed and surrogate species were less than twofold. A safety factor of two would provide a conservative estimate for listed cold-water, warm-water, and euryhaline fish species.

Estimating pesticide exposure in tidal streams of Leadenwah Creek, South Carolina.

This article estimates the potential exposure of estuarine organisms to two pesticides (azinphosmethyl and fenvalerate) in a tidal stream of Leadenwah Creek near the Edisto River, South Carolina, during four runoff episodes. Exposure is calculated from simulation runs of the one-dimensional transport equation solved by an implicit finite difference method. Calibration was done for each episode by adjusting three conditions (runoff starting time, duration, and flow) and a correction to the dispersion coefficient in order to match the continuously measured salinity transients. First-order rate constants used by the fate component were calculated from half-life values reported in the literature. Baseline scenarios for each episode and each pesticide were derived by using the same conditions obtained in the salinity runs and adjusting the pesticide loading in order to mimic the few data points of measured pesticide concentrations. In all baseline scenarios, pesticide concentration rises following the initial burst of runoff (also noticeable as an abrupt drop in salinity) and then oscillates, forced by the tidal cycle. These oscillations are dominated by transport, while fate imposes a secular decaying trend. Ten additional scenarios for each episode were obtained from the baseline scenario by randomly varying three pesticide load parameters (starting time and duration of runoff, and pesticide discharge) using a Latin hypercubes design. Two exposure metrics were calculated from the simulated and the measured pesticide concentration: maximum and time average, which was obtained by integrating the curve and dividing by the time period. The metrics calculated from the baseline runs are relatively close to the data-derived metrics, because the baseline runs attempted to mimic the data. For each one of the two metrics and all pesticide-episode combinations, several statistics of the set of 11 scenarios were also calculated: minimum and maximum, mid-range, mean, standard deviation, and median. The mean +/- standard deviation interval of the simulation-derived value consistently brackets the data-derived value for the maximum metric, but not for the time-average metric. This may indicate that even if the maximum value is correctly captured in the field sample, the time-average exposure could be in error when calculated directly from the field data due to undersampling of the pesticide time series. The methodology developed here attempts to reconstruct the possible exposure from the sparse sampling of the pesticide concentration during the runoff episodes; only when the number of field samples is high and regularly spaced is it possible to have confidence in the reconstruction of the curve. The shape of the curve cannot be inferred from the field measurements alone; as expected, tidal movement makes the pesticide concentration swing up and down. This result has important implications because the biological community would be subject to repetitive pulses of exposure to the chemicals. The baseline simulations can be used to derive a pulse-exposure metric by calculating the sum of ratios of the time average of the threshold-exceeding concentrations to the time average of the toxic threshold during intervals of above-threshold concentration. This metric is species specific and extrapolates laboratory toxicity data in order to compare pulse exposure to mortality rates measured in the field.

Acute and chronic toxicity of azinphos-methyl to two estuarine species, Mysidopsis bahia and Cyprinodon variegatus.

The acute and chronic toxicity of azinphos-methyl (Guthion) was evaluated for two estuarine species in the laboratory. Mysids (Mysidopsis bahia) and sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) were selected as the representative invertebrate and vertebrate estuarine test species, respectively. The toxicological endpoints determined for each species included the 96-h LC50, the no-observed-effect concentration (NOEC), the maximum acceptable toxicant concentration (MATC), and the acute-to-chronic ratio. The 96-h LC50 value derived for sheepshead minnows (2.0 microg/L) was seven times higher than the 96-h LC50 value (0.29 microg/L) derived for mysids. The MATCs were 0.024 microg/L and 0.24 microg/L for the mysid and the sheepshead minnow, respectively. The estimated acute-to-chronic ratios were 12 for mysids and 8.3 for sheepshead minnows.

Estimation of acute toxicity by fitting a dose-time-response surface.

In acute toxicity testing, organisms are continuously exposed to progressively increasing concentrations of a chemical and deaths of test organisms are recorded at several selected times. The results of the test are traditionally summarized by a dose-response curve, and the time course of effect is usually ignored for lack of a suitable model. A model which integrates the combined effects of dose and exposure duration on response is derived from the biological mechanisms of aquatic toxicity, and a statistically efficient approach for estimating acute toxicity by fitting the proposed model is developed in this paper. The proposed procedure has been computerized as software and a typical data set is used to illustrate the theory and procedure. The new statistical technique is also tested by a data base of a variety of chemical and fish species.

Clinical tests in aquatic toxicology: state of the art.

Hazard assessment of chemicals to aquatic organisms involves the use of many toxicity tests. Acute toxicity tests, embryo-larval toxicity tests, and chronic toxicity tests that measure survival, growth, and reproductive effects now provide the most relative utility for evaluation of potential chemical hazards to aquatic life. Physiological, biochemical, and histological measurements have a low relative utility as diagnostic tests in aquatic toxicology because it is not yet possible to relate changes in these sublethal responses to adverse environmental impacts. The problem of interpreting the toxicological significance of chemical-induced changes in biochemical and physiological mechanisms is twofold: (1) the understanding of physiological and biochemical regulatory mechanisms in fish is limited; and (2) parallel changes in these mechanisms are difficult to correlate with toxicant exposure and impaired ability of fish to survive. To overcome this problem, more physiological and biochemical research must be conducted in conjunction with toxicity studies that measure important whole-animal responses. Toxicant-induced biochemical and physiological responses must be correlated unequivocally with responses related to reproduction, growth and development, survival, or fish health if pertinent diagnostic tests are to be developed for use in aquatic toxicology. The use of diagnostic tests in hazard assessment procedures can decrease the time required for safety evaluation of chemicals, define no-effect exposure concentrations more adequately, and provide a better understanding of the mode of action of chemicals. Considerations for improving the status of the "state of the art" of diagnostic or clinical tests in aquatic toxicology are discussed.

Thidiazuron uptake, distribution and metabolism in bluegills and channel catfish.

Bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus) exposed to 0.1 ppm of thidiazuron-14C cotton defoliant for 28 days under continuous flow conditions accumulated relatively low levels of radiocarbon. The maximum detected was 5.4 ppm in fillet tissue after 1 day. During a 14 day depuration period, radioactivity declined to 1.0 ppm or less. Fractionation of offal and fillet tissues from bluegills collected at 28 days indicated that most of the radioactive material was water soluble, although appreciable amounts of organosoluble radioactive material also were present. When bluegills were injected intraperitoneally with thidiazuron-14C, metabolism and elimination were relatively rapid. Organosoluble radioactive material isolated from fish tissue included thidiazuron, its 2-hydroxyphenyl derivative, phenylurea, and several unknowns. Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) exposed under static conditions to a system containing 0.15 ppm of thidiazuron-14C incorporated into soil also accumulated only low concentrations of radiocarbon. The maximum detected was 2.5 ppb in offal tissue at 7 days. In fillet tissue, radioactivity did not exceed 0.5 ppb. There was no evidence from these studies to indicate that thidiazuron would pose a hazard to the aquatic ecosystem.