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Method Development for a Short-Term 7-d Toxicity Test with Unionid Mussels (RARE Project Development of Standard Methods for Two Freshwater Invertebrate Species, Mussels and Mayflies, for Whole Effluent Toxicity Testing and Receiving Waters)
Citation:
Wang, N., J. Kunz, D. Hardesty, J. Steevens, T. Norberg-King, E. Hammer, C. Bauer, T. Augsberger, S. Dunn, D. Martinez, C. Barnhardt, J. Murray, M. Bowersox, J. Roberts, R. Bringolf, R. Ratajczak, S. Ciparis, W. Cope, S. Buczek, D. Farrar, L. May, M. Garton, P. Gillis, J. Bennett, J. Salerno, B. Hester, R. Lockwood, C. Tarr, D. McIntyre, AND J. Wardell. Method Development for a Short-Term 7-d Toxicity Test with Unionid Mussels (RARE Project Development of Standard Methods for Two Freshwater Invertebrate Species, Mussels and Mayflies, for Whole Effluent Toxicity Testing and Receiving Waters). ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL, 40(12):3392-3409, (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5225
Impact/Purpose:
Whole effluent toxicity (WET) methods are used to assess whether effluents (water discharged from wastewater treatment plants or industry) and ambient waters cause toxicity to aquatic life. Currently, EPA's effluent permitting program relies on short-term chronic freshwater tests (4-d to 8-d) with cladocerans (Ceriodaphnia dubia), green algae (Raphidocelis subcapitata) and fish (Pimephales promelas). To further protect aquatic life, additional standardized test species may be useful for freshwater environments for chronic exposures. This project aims to evaluate the mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidea) for this purpose. This RARE project focused on developing short-term chronic (7-14 d) standard water column whole effluent (WET) toxicity test procedures for the mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidia). This species has been shown to be sensitive to a wide range of chemicals and effluents and have been successfully used in toxicity testing to support water quality criteria development. In this RARE project, various studies were initiated to assess the use of the mussel in 7-d tests, with feeding rate experiments with various ages (1 wk, 2 wk, 3 wk old mussesl) for standardizing the method using standard reference toxicants. This test method was then evaluated in an interlaboratory study conducted by volunteer laboratories from the United States and Canada. The method had reasonably good precision and reproducibility. Use of the mussel method is of interest to the EPA Office of Water (Permits, Office of Science and Technology), the EPA regional permitting offices, and the state permitting coordinators, laboratories as another tool in the toolbox for protecting aquatic life with additional test species and methods for effluents and other media.
Description:
US Environmental Protection Agency’s short-term freshwater effluent test methods include a fish (Pimephales promelas), a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia), and a green alga (Raphidocelis subcapitata). There is a recognized need for additional taxa to accompany the 3 standard species for effluent testing. An appropriate additional taxon is unionid mussels because mussels are widely distributed, live burrowed in sediment and filter particles from the water column for food, and exhibit high sensitivity to a variety of contaminants. Multiple studies were conducted to develop a relevant and robust short-term test method for mussels. We first evaluated the comparative sensitivity of 2 mussel species (Villosa constricta and Lampsilis siliquoidea) and 2 standard species (P. promelas and C. dubia) using 2 mock effluents or a field-collected effluent in 7-d exposures. Both mussel species were equally or more sensitive (>2 fold) to effluents compared to the standard species. Next, we refined the mussel test method by first determining the best feeding rate of a commercial algal mixture for 3 age groups (1-, 2-, and 3-wk old) of L. siliquoidea in a 7-d feeding experiment, and then using the derived optimal feeding rates to assess the sensitivity of the 3 ages of juveniles in a 7-d reference toxicant (NaCl) test. Juvenile 19 mussels grew substantially (30 to 52% length increase) when the 1- or 2-wk-old mussels were fed 2 mL twice daily and the 3-wk-old mussels were fed 3 mL twice daily. 25% inhibition concentrations (IC25s) for NaCl were similar (314 to 520 mg Cl/L) among the 3 age groups, indicating that an age range of 1- to 3-wk-old mussels can be used for a 7-d test. Finally, using the refined test method, we conducted an interlaboratory study among 13 laboratories to evaluate the performance of a 7-d NaCl test with L. siliquoidea. Eleven laboratories successfully completed the test, with >80% control survival and reliable growth data. IC25s ranged from 296 to 1076 mg Cl/L, with a low (34%) coefficient of variation, indicating that the proposed method for L. siliquoidea has acceptable precision.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Method Development for a Short-Term 7-d Toxicity Test with Unionid Mussels (RARE Project Development of Standard Methods for Two Freshwater Invertebrate Species, Mussels and Mayflies, for Whole Effluent Toxicity Testing and Receiving Waters)
DRAFT_PROOF_WANG ET AL MUSSEL 7-D TEST METHOD DEVELOPMENT 5-5-2021.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 447.91 KB, about PDF)