Comparative toxicity of five metals on various biological subjects.

Abstract

Environmental contaminants, including metals, can have toxic effects on many different organisms and affect biological processes at cellular, population, community and ecosystem levels of organization. Metals are of particular interest because they may have a positive effect as micronutrients at low concentrations as well as a toxic effect at higher levels. Numerous efforts have been made to correlate and predict metal-ion toxicities on various aquatic and terrestrial species, according to the physical and chemical properties of the metals. The acute and chronic toxicities of metals have been studied on many freshwater organisms and also on plants. The water flea, Daphnia magna, an important freshwater zooplankter, is a useful test species to study sensitivity to environmental toxicants and has been recognized as a general representative for other freshwater animals. As Khangarot described, little information is available on the effects of metals to tubificid worms, which are widely distributed in the aquatic environment and are useful indicators of varying degrees of aquatic pollution. Most recent hazard evaluation programs recommend algal toxicity tests for initial evaluations of chemicals that are expected to reach surface waters and that have suspected or unknown phytotoxic properties. For higher plants, the accumulation of metals, especially cadmium, wasmore » tested when plants grew in sewage sludge-amended soils or in soils of cadmium residues form phosphate fertilizers. No reports were available indicating the effects of these metals on seed germination and root growth. This study was conducted to determine the acute toxicological effects of some metals (As, Pb, Cr, Hg, Cd) on four biological subjects (tubificid worms, Daphnia magna sp., Scenedesmus quadricauda, seeds of Sinapis alba) and to compare their sensitivity to individual test metals. 16 refs., 1 tab.« less