The Evaluation of “Dynamic Daphnia Test” After a Decade of Use

Gene response profiles for Daphnia pulex exposed to the environmental stressor cadmium reveals novel crustacean metallothioneins

“…As a dominant member of the planktonic community, Daphnia play a central role in aquatic food webs, serving as the primary grazers of algae, bacteria and protozoans, and as the primary forage for fish. As a result, Daphnia are long recognized as a sentinel/indicator species in freshwater ecosystems and they are routinely used to determine the toxicity of aqueous solutions and to gauge the quality of inland waters [ 7 ]. Therefore, the gross-level responses of Daphnia to a number of environmental pollutants are well characterized [ 8 ], and these responses are referenced by environmental protection agencies (e.g., United States Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) to define regulatory limits [ 9 ], monitor the quality of industrial and municipal effluents [ 10 , 11 ] and estimate the risk of environmental toxins on natural environments.…”

In situ on‐line toxicity biomonitoring in water: Recent developments

“…In 1986, a Sandoz chemical storage building in Basel (Switzerland) caught fire, spewing approximately 40 tons of insecticides and 400 kg of atrazine into the Rhine River, resulting in the devastation of a large portion of the river's biocoenosis as well as drinking-water production (40 waterworks had to close for one month) from an already polluted river [6]. Shortly after the accident, an automated biomonitoring system, such as the dynamic Daphnia test (a device that electronically measures Daphnia swimming behavior) [7], located 500 km down-stream detected and reported the event. Samples taken at the time of the alarm showed that the same types of pesticides triggering these alarms were stored in the Sandoz facility.…”