Influence of dissolved organic matter on acute toxicity of zinc to larval fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas)

Recommended updates to the USEPA Framework for Metals Risk Assessment: Aquatic ecosystems

In 2007, the USEPA issued its "Framework for Metals Risk Assessment." The framework provides technical guidance to risk assessors and regulators when performing human health and environmental risk assessments of metals. This article focuses on advances in the science including assessing bioavailability in aquatic ecosystems, short- and long-term fate of metals in aquatic ecosystems, and advances in risk assessment of metals in sediments. Notable advances have occurred in the development of bioavailability models for assessing toxicity as a function of water chemistry in freshwater ecosystems. The biotic ligand model (BLM), the multiple linear regression model, and multimetal BLM now exist for most of the common mono- and divalent metals. Species sensitivity distributions for many metals exist, making it possible for many jurisdictions to develop or update their water quality criteria or guidelines. The understanding of the fate of metals in the environment has undergone significant scrutiny over the past 20 years. Transport and toxicity models have evolved including the Unit World Model allowing for estimation of concentrations of metals in various compartments as a function of loading and time. There has been significant focus on the transformation of metals in sediments into forms that are less bioavailable and on understanding conditions that result in resolubilization or redistribution of metals in and from sediments. Methods for spiking sediments have advanced such that the resulting chemistry in the laboratory mimics that in natural systems. Sediment bioavailability models are emerging including models that allow for prediction of toxicity in sediments for copper and nickel. Biodynamic models have been developed for several organisms and many metals. The models allow for estimates of transport of metals from sediments to organisms via their diet as well as their water exposure. All these advances expand the tool set available to risk assessors. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:924-951. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

The prevalence of nonlinearity and detection of ecological breakpoints across a land use gradient in streams

Human activities can alter aquatic ecosystems through the input of nutrients and carbon, but there is increasing evidence that these pressures induce nonlinear ecological responses. Nonlinear relationships can contain breakpoints where there is an unexpected change in an ecological response to an environmental driver, which may result in ecological regime shifts. We investigated the occurrence of nonlinearity and breakpoints in relationships between total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), and total dissolved carbon (DOC) concentrations and ecological responses in streams with varying land uses. We calculated breakpoints using piecewise regression, two dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov (2DKS), and significant zero crossings (SiZer) methods. We found nonlinearity was common, occurring in half of all analyses, with some evidence of multiple breakpoints. Linearity, by contrast, occurred in less than 14% of cases, on average. Breakpoints were related to land use gradients, with 34–43% agricultural cover associated with DOC and TDN breakpoints, and 15% wetland and 9.5% urban land associated with DOC and nutrient breakpoints, respectively. While these breakpoints are likely specific to our study area, our study contributes to the growing literature of the prevalence and location of ecological breakpoints in streams, providing watershed managers potential criteria for catchment land use thresholds.

Metal (Pb, Cd, and Zn) Binding to Diverse Organic Matter Samples and Implications for Speciation Modeling

This study evaluated the influence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) properties on the speciation of Pb, Zn, and Cd. A total of six DOM samples were categorized into autochthonous and allochthonous sources based on their absorbance and fluorescence properties. The concentration of free metal ions ( C_M²⁺) measured by titration using the absence of gradients and Nernstian equilibrium stripping (AGNES) method was compared with that predicted by the Windermere humic aqueous model (WHAM). At the same binding condition (pH, dissolved organic carbon, ionic strength, and total metal concentration) the allochthonous DOM showed a higher level of Pb binding than the autochthonous DOM (84- to 504-fold C_Pb²⁺ variation). This dependency, however, was less pronounced for Zn (12- to 74-fold C_Zn²⁺ variation) and least for Cd (2- to 14-fold C_Cd²⁺ variation). The WHAM performance was affected by source variation through the active DOM fraction ( F). The commonly used F = 1.3 provided reliable C_Pb²⁺ for allochthonous DOMs and acceptable C_Cd²⁺ for all DOM, but it significantly under-predicted C_Pb²⁺ and C_Zn²⁺ for autochthonous DOM. Adjusting F improved C_M²⁺ predictions, but the optimum F values were metal-specific (e.g., 0.03-1.9 for Pb), as shown by linear correlations with specific optical indexes. The results indicate a potential to improve WHAM by incorporating rapid measurement of DOM optical properties for site-specific F.

Esfenvalerate toxicity to the cladoceran Ceriodaphnia dubia in the presence of green algae, Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata

The presence of phytoplankton, like other particulate organic matter, can interfere with the effects of hydrophobic contaminants such as pyrethroid pesticides. However, the reduction or elimination of toxicity by algae added as food during testing is not taken into account in standard US EPA whole effluent toxicity (WET) zooplankton tests. On the other hand, WET test conditions may overestimate toxicity of such compounds in highly productive surface waters with high concentrations of detritus and other particulate matter. In addition, WET tests do not measure impaired swimming ability or predator avoidance behavior as an indicator of increased mortality risk. This study used a modified version of the US EPA WET Ceriodaphnia dubia acute test to investigate the effects of phytoplankton on toxicity of the pyrethroid insecticide, esfenvalerate. Animals were exposed simultaneously to different concentrations of esfenvalerate and green algae (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata). Mortality and predation risk were recorded after 4 and 24 h. Algae at or below concentrations specified in the WET protocol significantly reduced mortality. Regardless, organisms exposed to esfenvalerate were unable to avoid simulated predation in the presence of algae at any concentration. After 12 h, esfenvalerate adsorbed to algae represented 68-99 % of the total amount recovered. The proportion of algae-bound insecticide increased with algal concentration indicating that conclusions drawn from toxicity tests in which algae are added as food must be interpreted with caution as the dissolved fraction of such hydrophobic contaminants is reduced. Additionally, our results strongly suggest that the EPA should consider adding ecologically-relevant endpoints such as swimming behavior to standard WET protocols.

Acute toxicity of zinc to several aquatic species native to the Rocky Mountains

National water-quality criteria for the protection of aquatic life are based on toxicity tests, often using organisms that are easy to culture in the laboratory. Species native to the Rocky Mountains are poorly represented in data sets used to derive national water-quality criteria. To provide additional data on the toxicity of zinc, several laboratory acute-toxicity tests were conducted with a diverse assortment of fish, benthic invertebrates, and an amphibian native to the Rocky Mountains. Tests with fish were conducted using three subspecies of cutthroat trout (Colorado River cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii pleuriticus, greenback cutthroat trout O. clarkii stomias, and Rio Grande cutthroat trout O. clarkii virginalis), mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni), mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdi), longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae), and flathead chub (Platygobio gracilis). Aquatic invertebrate tests were conducted with mayflies (Baetis tricaudatus, Drunella doddsi, Cinygmula sp. and Ephemerella sp.), a stonefly (Chloroperlidae), and a caddis fly (Lepidostoma sp.). The amphibian test was conducted with tadpoles of the boreal toad (Bufo boreas). Median lethal concentrations (LC(50)s) ranged more than three orders of magnitude from 166 μg/L for Rio Grande cutthroat trout to >67,000 μg/L for several benthic invertebrates. Of the organisms tested, vertebrates were the most sensitive, and benthic invertebrates were the most tolerant.

Toxic effects of zinc on the development, growth, and survival of red sea bream Pagrus major embryos and larvae

This study investigated the zinc toxicity to red sea bream Pagrus major embryos and larvae at 18 +/- 1 degrees C (33 +/- 1 per thousand in salinity) under laboratory conditions. The acute toxicity tests indicated that zinc 48-h LC50 to embryos and 96-h LC50 to larvae were 4.3 (3.3-6.3; 95% confidence limits) and 10.1 (9.0-11.4) mg l(-1), respectively, suggesting that embryos were more sensitive than larvae to zinc exposure. The subchronic toxicity test, in which embryos and larvae were continuously exposed to 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 mg Zn2+ l(-1) solutions for 10 days, demonstrated that waterborne zinc had distinctly toxic effects on the development, growth, and survival of red sea bream embryos and larvae. Zinc exposure at concentrations > or = 0.5 mg l(-1) would lead to a low hatching rate (19-78%, vs. 98% in controls), high mortality (29-91%, vs. 10% in controls), and morphological abnormality (12-77%, vs. 0.3% in controls) in embryos and larvae, while it caused delay in time-to-hatch in embryos at concentrations > or = 1.0 mg l(-1). These four biological parameters were zinc concentration dependent and could be effective bioindicators for evaluating the toxicity of zinc to the early life stage of this fish. Heartbeats of embryos (9-13 beats 10 s(-1)) were relatively low and were not significantly influenced by zinc concentration, although they rose remarkably with elevated zinc concentration in larvae at the end of the test, particularly when it was > or = 1.0 mg l(-1) (36-38, vs. 31 beats 10 s(-1) in controls). The total length (LT) of the larvae at the end of the test was reduced by 12.2% and 15.6% in the 1.0 and 2.0 mg l(-1) solutions but did not vary significantly in other solutions in comparison with the controls. Heartbeat and LT were less sensitive to zinc exposure and might not be good biological parameters for determining the toxicity of zinc to the early life stage of red sea bream.

A toxicity monitoring study on identification and reduction of toxicants from a wastewater treatment plant

In this study, toxicity of effluents in a wastewater treatment plant and of receiving water in an adjacent stream was periodically monitored from November 2007 to June 2008, in order to trace and reduce sources of toxicants. The results showed that toxicity of final effluent (FE) changed greatly over different sampling events, and appeared to have impacts on toxicity of downstream water with a significant correlation (r(2)=0.87, p<0.05). In particular, FE toxicity was always higher than that of secondary effluent (SE). Toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) for the FE sample collected in March 2008 showed that FE toxicity was attributed to low quality of Fenton reagent with Zn contamination used for SE treatment. Furthermore, Zn concentrations in FE samples significantly correlated with FE toxicity during the sampling period (r(2)=0.95, p<0.05). After changing the Fenton reagent to one containing low Zn, Zn concentration and toxicity of FE greatly decreased in the following months.

Amendment of hydroxyapatite in reduction of tetrachloroethylene by zero-valent zinc: its rate enhancing effect and removal of Zn(II)

The effects of hydroxyapatite (HAP) on dechlorination of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) by zero-valent zinc (ZVZ) were examined in batch systems. PCE was primarily transformed to trichloroethylene by ZVZ, with 1,2-trans-dichloroethylene representing a minor product. Dechlorination of PCE was accelerated by the presence of HAP, and the pseudo-first order rate constants increased with increasing amount of HAP. Zn(II), mostly generated from oxidative dissolution of ZVZ by PCE, was effectively removed from the solution by HAP. Ion substitution, coprecipitation, and adsorption are proposed as the possible mechanisms for Zn(II) removal. These reactions appeared to occur simultaneously and the contribution of each reaction to overall removal of Zn(II) was primarily dependent on HAP loading at constant ZVZ loading. The results indicate that the use of HAP in combination with conventional zero-valent metals is promising in that it can achieve both degradation of organic contaminants and stabilization of inorganic contaminants.