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Effects of temperature and nutritional state on the acute toxicity of acridine to the calanoid copepod, Diaptomus clavipes schacht
Author(s) -
Cooney John D.,
Beauchamp J.,
Gehrs Carl W.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.5620020408
Subject(s) - copepod , acridine , toxicity , biology , acute toxicity , zoology , toxicology , veterinary medicine , physiology , medicine , crustacean , genetics
Acute toxicity tests were performed on adult males and females of a freshwater calanoid copepod, Diaptomus clavipes Schacht, using the azaarene acridine as the test compound. Tests were performed at three temperatures (16, 21 and 26°C) and over a range of nutritional states (fed, starved and stock). Observations on mortality were made at 24‐h intervals for 96 h. Analysis of the data was based on comparisons (using different treatment combinations) of the parameters in a logistic survival function used to describe the mortality data. Median lethal concentrations (using 96‐h LC 50 values) were estimated from the logistic survival function as well as from the probit function, for comparative purposes. The LC 50 values ranged from 1.64 to 6.70 mg/L, depending on temperature, nutritional state of the animals and sex. The LC 50 values were highest for animals (fed before testing) at 16°C. As food availability decreased and temperature increased, toxicity of acridine increased up to fourfold. No significant differences in LC 50 values were found between the sexes except in starved animals at 26°C, when males were more sensitive than females. This difference in toxicity between the sexes at 26°C may be due to differences in nutritional stress between the sexes (at this temperature), since control mortality at this temperature was also higher in males than in females.