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Toxicity of ammonia to three marine fish and three marine invertebrates
Author(s) -
Boardman Gregory D.,
Starbuck Steven M.,
Hudgins Douglas B.,
Li Xiayoun,
Kuhn David D.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
environmental toxicology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1522-7278
pISSN - 1520-4081
DOI - 10.1002/tox.20006
Subject(s) - flounder , shrimp , chronic toxicity , seawater , toxicity , crustacean , salinity , marine invertebrates , environmental chemistry , fishery , acute toxicity , invertebrate , ammonia , biology , zoology , chemistry , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , biochemistry , organic chemistry
Laboratory toxicity tests were performed to obtain more data on the toxicity of ammonia to saltwater organisms. The standards for in‐stream ammonia limits in marine environments presently are based on toxicity tests involving both freshwater and saltwater organisms. Acute tests (48 and 96 h) were performed at 20°C, and chronic tests (7 days) were performed at 25°C. Synthetic seawater and natural seawater from the Chesapeake Bay were used and compared. Included among the organisms tested were sheepshead minnow (14 days old), summer flounder (2 months old), Atlantic silverside (14 days old), mysid shrimp (less than 2 days old), ghost shrimp (10 days old), and quahog clam (9 months old). Based on these results, it seems the chronic criterion for ammonia in marine environments could be increased from 0.035 to 0.081 mg/L un‐ionized ammonia, which would, of course, increase the chronic limit for total ammonia under typical saltwater conditions by a factor of 2.31. No difference was observed in the toxicity of ammonia in natural water compared to synthetic water for both the summer flounder and Atlantic silverside. Furthermore, the Atlantic silverside became more sensitive to ammonia as the salinity was increased from 14 to 22 ppt, but exhibited no change in toxicity response from 22 to 30 ppt. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 19: 134–142, 2004