Accumulation kinetics of arsenic in Daphnia magna under different phosphorus and food density regimes

In the present study, the dissolved uptake, dietary assimilation, and elimination of arsenic (initially added as arsenate) in the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia magna were examined. A biphasic correlation between the arsenic uptake rate and its ambient concentration, as well as a two–saturation‐site arsenic uptake competition with phosphate was observed. The calculated uptake rate constant, as influenced by the ambient phosphorus concentration, ranged from 0.035 to 0.35 L/g/d. Food concentration substantially decreased (by 23.2–64.4%) the arsenic assimilation efficiency with the incipient limiting algal food concentration of 3.86 mg/L dry weight. Arsenic assimilation by the daphnids was independent of their own phosphorus status, but was lower when their algal diet was phosphorus‐limited and thus contained a higher proportion of arsenite due to the enhanced biotransformation. Arsenic efflux rate constant ranged from 0.34 to 0.44 d −1 with increased food concentration slightly facilitating its loss. Excretion, accounting for 51.3 to 60.6% of total loss, was the dominant pathway for arsenic elimination with a remarkable contribution from offspring production (24.7–29.8%), whereas molting (3.64–4.05%) and egestion (7.9–11.9%) had minor roles only. According to the well‐established biokinetic model, dietary assimilation was predicted to be the main pathway for arsenic bioaccumulation in the daphnids, and arsenic has a great potential to be biodiminished along the food chain. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012;31:1283–1291. © 2012 SETAC