Abstract
The species sensitivity distribution (SSD) calculates the hazardous concentration at which 5% of species (HC5) will be potentially affected. For many compounds, HC5 values are unavailable impeding the derivation of SSD curves. Through a detailed bibliographic survey, we selected HC5 values (from acute toxicity tests) for freshwater aquatic species and 129 pesticides. The statistical distribution and variability of the HC5 values within the chemical classes were evaluated. Insecticides are the most toxic compounds in the aquatic communities (HC5 = 1.4 × 10−3 µmol L−1), followed by herbicides (HC5 = 3.3 × 10−2 µmol L−1) and fungicides (HC5 = 7.8 µmol L−1). Subsequently, the specificity of the mode of action (MoA) of pesticides on freshwater aquatic communities was investigated by calculating the ratio between the estimated baseline toxicity for aquatic communities and the HC5 experimental values gathered from the literature. Moreover, we proposed and validated a scheme to derive the ecological thresholds of toxicological concern (eco-TTC) of pesticides for which data on their effects on aquatic communities are not available. We proposed eco-TTCs for different classes of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides with a specific MoA, and three eco-TTCs for those chemicals with unavailable MoA. We consider the proposed approach and eco-TTC values useful for risk management purposes.
Highlights
IntroductionAccepted: 11 November 2021Species may differ in their sensitivity towards a particular chemical [1,2,3], and this can be due to differences in behavioural, physiological, morphological, and life-history traits [4].The recognition of these differences in sensitivity has led to the concept of species sensitivity distribution (SSD) being defined, which assumes that the sensitivities of a given number of species can be described by parametric or non-parametric statistical distribution functions [5,6,7,8,9,10].The available ecotoxicological dataset (based on acute or chronic toxicity data) is considered representative of this distribution and is used to describe the SSD curve, from which it is possible to estimate the hazardous concentration for x% of the species (HCx).As the default threshold of significance is 5%, it is called HC5
There are a large number of data aiming at evaluating the effects of these substances at the aquatic community level, and these data are generally derived from sensitivity distribution (SSD) studies and the derivation of HC5 values
These data are scattered in the literature, and this prevents a deepening view of their effects on aquatic ecosystems and a comparison among the different pesticides categories and mechanisms of action
Summary
Accepted: 11 November 2021Species may differ in their sensitivity towards a particular chemical [1,2,3], and this can be due to differences in behavioural, physiological, morphological, and life-history traits [4].The recognition of these differences in sensitivity has led to the concept of species sensitivity distribution (SSD) being defined, which assumes that the sensitivities of a given number of species can be described by parametric or non-parametric statistical distribution functions [5,6,7,8,9,10].The available ecotoxicological dataset (based on acute or chronic toxicity data) is considered representative of this distribution and is used to describe the SSD curve, from which it is possible to estimate the hazardous concentration for x% of the species (HCx).As the default threshold of significance is 5%, it is called HC5. Species may differ in their sensitivity towards a particular chemical [1,2,3], and this can be due to differences in behavioural, physiological, morphological, and life-history traits [4]. The recognition of these differences in sensitivity has led to the concept of species sensitivity distribution (SSD) being defined, which assumes that the sensitivities of a given number of species can be described by parametric or non-parametric statistical distribution functions [5,6,7,8,9,10]. HC5 is divided by a chosen appropriate assessment factor (AF) to extrapolate the predicted no-effect concentration
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