0000000000376728
AUTHOR
Guido Persoone
A practical and user-friendly toxicity classification system with microbiotests for natural waters and wastewaters
Various types of toxicity classification systems have been elaborated by scientists in different countries, with the aim of attributing a hazard score to polluted environments or toxic wastewaters or of ranking them in accordance with increasing levels of toxicity. All these systems are based on batteries of standard acute toxicity tests (several of them including chronic assays as well) and are therefore dependent on the culturing and maintenance of live stocks of test organisms. Most systems require performance of the bioassays on dilution series of the original samples, for subsequent calculation of L(E)C50 or threshold toxicity values. Given the complexity and costs of these toxicity me…
Ecotoxicological studies with the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. Resource competition between rotifers and daphnids under toxic stress
Abstract This study examined the ability of the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus to coexist with the large cladoceran Daphnia magna, and the effect of sublethal concentrations of copper on the competition between both species. Preliminary laboratory experiments showed that large Daphnia (> 1.2 mm) can kill and rapidly exclude the rotifer B. calyciflorus in mixed-species cultures. Brachionus populations were suppressed by Daphnia both through exploitative competition for shared, limited food resources and through mechanical interference. At a food concentration of 1 X 105 cells/ml of Nannochloris oculata, competition caused high mortality rates and decreased fertility in the rotife…