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Acute toxicity of sodium chloride and potassium chloride to a unionid mussel ( Lampsilis siliquoidea) in water exposures
Citation:
Wang, N., C. Ivey, R. Dorman, C. Ingersoll, J. Steevens, E. Hammer, C. Bauer, AND Dave Mount. Acute toxicity of sodium chloride and potassium chloride to a unionid mussel ( Lampsilis siliquoidea) in water exposures. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL, 37(12):3041-3049, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4206
Impact/Purpose:
This manuscript provides data on the acute toxicity of the major ion salts NaCl and KCl to two life stages of the freshwater mussel, Lampsilis siliquoidea. Testing showed greater sensitivity to KCl than to NaCl, and greater sensitivity of the glochidia life stage than for juvenile mussels. In addition, the toxicity of NaCl was found to be reduced by increased water hardness, an effect which appears to be due largely to Ca specifically. Data from these studies will help inform the development of water quality criteria (and related assessment tools) for these major ions.
Description:
Freshwater mussels (order Unionoida) are one of the most imperiled groups of animals in the world. However, freshwater mussels are generally under-represented in toxicity databases used to derive the US Environmental Protection Agency ambient water quality criteria (WQC) and other environmental guideline values. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the acute toxicity of sodium chloride (NaCl) and potassium chloride (KCl) to larvae (glochidia) and juveniles of a unionid mussel (fatmucket, Lampsilis siliquoidea), and to determine the potential influences of water hardness (50, 100, 200, and 300 mg/L as CaCO3) and other major ions (Ca, K, SO4, or HCO3) on the acute toxicity of NaCl to the mussels. The 50% effect concentration (EC50) for fatmucket glochidia (30 mg K/L) was similar or slightly lower than EC50s for juvenile fatmucket (37-46 mg K/L). With increasing water hardness, the NaCl EC50s for glochidia increased from 441 to 1,597 mg Cl/L and the EC50s for juvenile mussels increased from 911 to 3,092 mg Cl/L. Increasing K from 0.4 to 1.9 mg/L, SO4 from 13 to 40 mg/L, or HCO3 from 44 to 200 mg/L in the 50 mg/L hardness water did not substantially change the NaCl EC50s for juvenile mussels, whereas increasing Ca from 9.9 to 42 mg/L increased the EC50s by a factor of 2. The results indicate that the glochidia were equally or more sensitive to KCl and NaCl than juvenile mussels; the toxicity of NaCl was influenced by hardness, primarily by Ca. Including the toxicity data from the present study in the existing databases would rank fatmucket among the most sensitive species to NaCl or KCl for all freshwater organisms tested. Therefore, the development of WQC and other environmental guideline values for the two toxicants should reflect the sensitivity of fatmucket, and likely other mussel species.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Acute toxicity of sodium chloride and potassium chloride to a unionid mussel ( Lampsilis siliquoidea) in water exposures