Species sensitivity analysis of heavy metals to freshwater organisms

Ecotoxicology (2015) 24:1621–1631 DOI 10.1007/s10646-015-1500-2 Species sensitivity analysis of heavy metals to freshwater organisms Zheng Xin1 • Zang Wenchao2 • Yan Zhenguang1 • Hong Yiguo3 • Liu Zhengtao1 • Yi Xianliang4 • Wang Xiaonan1 • Liu Tingting1 • Zhou Liming5 Accepted: 28 May 2015 / Published online: 24 June 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract Acute toxicity data of six heavy metals [Cu, Hg, Cd, Cr(VI), Pb, Zn] to aquatic organisms were collected and screened. Species sensitivity distributions (SSD) curves of vertebrate and invertebrate were constructed by log–logistic model separately. The comprehensive comparisons of the sensitivities of different trophic species to six typical heavy metals were performed. The results indicated invertebrate taxa to each heavy metal exhibited higher sensitivity than vertebrates. However, with respect to the same taxa species, Cu had the most adverse effect on vertebrate, followed by Hg, Cd, Zn and Cr. When datasets from all species were included, Cu and Hg were still more toxic than the others. In particular, the toxicities of Pb to & Yan Zhenguang & Hong Yiguo 1 State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Ecological Effect and Risk Assessment of Chemicals, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, An Wai Da Yang Fang 8, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, People’s Republic of China 2 Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, MEP, Yuhui South Road 1, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China 3 State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, People’s Republic of China 4 Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116052, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China 5 College of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China vertebrate and fish were complicated as the SSD curves of Pb intersected with those of other heavy metals, while the SSD curves of Pb constructed by total species no longer crossed with others. The hazardous concentrations for 5 % of the species (HC5) affected were derived to determine the concentration protecting 95 % of species. The HC5 values of the six heavy metals were in the descending order: Zn [ Pb [ Cr [ Cd [ Hg [ Cu, indicating toxicities in opposite order. Moreover, potential affected fractions were calculated to assess the ecological risks of different heavy metals at certain concentrations of the selected heavy metals. Evaluations of sensitivities of the species at various trophic levels and toxicity analysis of heavy metals are necessary prior to derivation of water quality criteria and the further environmental protection. Keywords Heavy metals  Aquatic organisms  Species sensitivity distributions (SSD)  Ecological risks  Toxicity Introduction Widespread pollution from heavy metals is one of the major causes of the poor freshwater quality currently observed globally (Liu et al. 2009; Montuori et al. 2013; Sekabira et al. 2010). Human activities such as industrial effluent, agricultural drainages, vehicle emissions and domestic wastes have all posed serious risks associated with heavy metals exposure to human and water bodies (Adnano 1986; Moore and Ramanamoorthy 1984; Sekhar et al. 2003; Green et al. 2010). For example, some heavy metals such as Zn and Cu are essential for the growth and well-being of living organisms including human beings. Other elements such as Hg and Cr are not essential for metabolic activities and exhibit toxic to aquatic organism. 123 1622 Cd and Cr have been reported to be the cause of several serious pollution incidents recently in China (BurchardLevine et al. 2012; Lin et al. 2005; Gao and Xia 2011). However, the presence of heavy metals in ecosystems becomes dangerous for organisms when the concentration rises above the natural background in water (Lopa and Adhikari 2006). Unlike other pollutants, heavy metals have been paid more attentions because they are persistent, nondegradable, toxic, and can be bioconcentrated and biomagnified, which can transfer to the human body via food chain and pose serious threats to the environment (Gavrilescu 2004; Lai et al. 2005; Townsend et al. 2013). As a particular pollutant may produce different detrimental effects in various organisms (Maltby et al. 2005), there is an increasing need to evaluate the risks that the heavy metals may pose to different aquatic organisms. Freshwater species consist of vertebrates and invertebrates. A diverse range of fish, reptiles, and amphibians make up vertebrates, and invertebrates mainly consist of crustaceans, mollusk and worms. Fish and cladoceran are dominant vertebrates and invertebrates, respectively. Previous studies have revealed that the toxicity mechanism of heavy metals to species at various trophic levels are different (Amiard et al. 2006). Sensitive test organisms screening is a crucial prerequisite for water quality criteria (WQC) derivation, and there has been some related researches (Wang et al. 2014a, b, c; Zheng et al. 2014; Cai et al. 2014). Daphnia magna for invertebrates, Danio rerio for fish are standard test organisms. While the sensitivity of these standard test organisms to different pollutants differ a lot, D. magna is not always the most sensitive species such as it shows much lower sensitivity to neonicotinoids compared to insects (Rubach et al. 2010). The study aims to better understand taxonomic differences in species sensitivity. The species sensitivity distribution (SSD) analysis is based on cumulative probability distributions of toxicity values for multiple species. The SSDs represent the variation in sensitivity of species toward a contaminant by a statistical or empirical distribution function of responses for a set of species (Posthuma et al. 2002). This method was first proposed by Kooijman (1987) and later improved by subsequent studies (Aldenberg and Slob 1993; Newman et al. 2000; Posthuma et al. 2002; Wagner and Løkke 1991). SSD method has been widely used to assess the ecological risks posed by heavy metals (Hall et al. 1998; Brix et al. 2001; Van Sprang et al. 2004). SSD is also used to calculate the concentration at which a specified proportion of species will be affected, referred to as the hazardous concentration (HC) for p (%) of species (HCp) (Newman et al. 2000). The most frequently estimated HCs are the HC5, the concentration by which protecting 95 % of species not affected (US EPA 2004; Dyer et al. 2006). 123 X. Zheng et al. Meanwhile, the percentile of species associated with a certain concentration can be used to assess the toxicity of a specific heavy metal and also the potential affected species. Numerous studies have addressed the direct impacts of heavy metals on freshwater organisms (Priel and Hershfinkel 2006; Birungi et al. 2007). Howev (...truncated)