Life cycle responses of the midge Chironomus riparius to polycyclic aromatic compound exposure

Abstract

General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Emergence of Chironomus riparius is a sensitive endpoint to detect life cycle effects of PACs. AbstractDuring acute exposure, polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) act mainly by narcosis, but during chronic exposure the same compounds may exert sublethal life cycle effects. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the chronic effects of sediment spiked PACs on the emergence of the midge Chironomus riparius. Three isomer pairs were selected, and 28-day LC 50 values and 50% emergence times (EMt 50 ) were determined. Concentrationeresponse relationships were observed for phenanthrene, acridine, phenanthridine and acridone. Anthracene and phenanthridone had no effect on total emergence, but did cause a delay in emergence. Calculated porewater LC 50 values correlated well with logK ow values, suggesting narcosis as mode of action. In contrast, effect concentrations for delay in emergence (EMt 50 ) deviated from narcosis, suggesting a specific mode of action during chronic exposure. It is concluded that emergence is a powerful endpoint to detect life cycle effects of PACs on a key sediment inhabiting invertebrate. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Keywords: Chironomus riparius; Polycyclic aromatic compounds; Emergence IntroductionPolycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) are ubiquitous contaminants, present in the environment mainly as a result of anthropogenic activities (industry, oil drilling and vehicle emissions). Smaller amounts of PACs are generated in natural processes, like volcanism and forest fires (Neilson, 1998). Because of their hydrophobicity, PACs tend to accumulate in sediments and soils, which act not only as a sink, but also as a source of PACs for benthic organisms (Wilcke, 2000;Van Metre and Mahler, 2005). In sediment cores from 38 urban and reference lakes across the United States, total sediment SPAH concentrations (SPAH ¼ sum of 13 homocyclic PACs used for the consensus-based sediment quality guidelines in the USA) ranged from 0.5 to 10 mg/kg (Van Metre and Mahler, 2005).Populations of benthic invertebrates are exposed to a variety of PACs in the sediment, but little is known about their chronic effects, since research has mainly focused on acute exposure (Bleeker et al., 1998; Neilson, 199...

Ecotoxicity of carbamazepine and its UV photolysis transformation products

“…Benthic invertebrate, midge (Chironomus riparius); 28 d; survival (emergence) (Paumen et al, 2008) 0.37 1.02…”

Comparative chronic toxicity of homo- and heterocyclic aromatic compounds to benthic and terrestrial invertebrates: Generalizations and exceptions

“…This study used life-cycle toxicity data obtained from studies with the terrestrial springtail Folsomia candida and the enchytraeid Enchytraeus crypticus (Droge et al, 2006), the benthic oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus (León Paumen et al 2008b) and the midge Chironomus riparius (León Paumen et al 2008a) performed earlier in our laboratories. These studies followed international guidelines (ISO, 1997;OECD, 2004aOECD, ,b, 2006 with slight modifications.…”

“…This generalization is obviously a big step forward, but the same study demonstrated that specific modes of action other than narcosis caused strong deviations from the relationship between toxicity and logK ow (Bleeker et al, 2002a). Such specific modes of action may even cause closely related compounds, such as isomers, to differ several orders of magnitude in toxicity (Walton et al, 1983;Wood et al, 1983;Kraak et al, 1997;Wiegman et al, 2001;Bleeker et al, 2002a;Droge et al, 2006;León Paumen et al, 2008a). Comparative toxicity is further complicated by the repeated observations that transformation products, generated with the aim to detoxify the parent compound, may have an unexpected and sometimes even exceptionally high toxicity.…”

“…In many short-term high-dose PAC toxicity studies, including those mentioned above, mortality was used as endpoint. This ignores that PACs can exert sublethal effects during long-term exposure, therewith affecting different biological endpoints (Droge et al, 2006;Feldmannova et al, 2006;León Paumen et al, 2008a). Hence, a reliable hazard assessment for PACs requires the inclusion of biological endpoints other than mortality, such as chronic effects on growth and reproduction.…”

“…Six compounds were tested: two homocyclic compounds (anthracene and phenanthrene), two azaarenes (acridine and phenanthridine) and the two main stable transformation products of the azaarenes (acridone and phenanthridone) ( Table 1). We obtained 28 d LC50 and/or EC50 reproduction values for the terrestrial springtail Folsomia candida and the enchytraeid Enchytraeus crypticus (Droge et al, 2006), the benthic oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus (León Paumen et al 2008b) and the midge Chironomus riparius (León Paumen et al, 2008a). In each of these studies some generalizations regarding chronic sublethal effects of homocyclic compounds, azaarenes and stable azaarene transformation products could be made, but many exceptions occurred, and these differed between the individual studies.…”