Comparison of laboratory batch and flow-through microcosm bioassays.

Since 1997, we have been developing a protocol for ecotoxicological bioassays in 2-L laboratory microcosms and have applied it to the study of various pollutants and ecotoxicological risk assessment scenarios in the area of urban facilities and transport infrastructures. The effects on five different organisms (micro-algae, duckweeds, daphnids, amphipods, chironomids) are assessed using biological responses such as growth, emergence (chironomids), reproduction (daphnids) and survival, with a duration of exposure of 3 weeks. This bioassay has mainly been used as a batch bioassay, i.e., the water was not renewed during the test. A flow-through microcosm bioassay has been developed recently, with the assumption that conditions for the biota should be improved, variability reduced, and the range of exposure patterns enlarged (e.g., the possibility of maintaining constant exposure in the water column). This paper compares the results obtained in batch and flow-through microcosm bioassays, using cadmium as a model toxicant. As expected, the stabilization of physico-chemical parameters, increased organism fitness and reduced variability were observed in the flow-through microcosm bioassay.

Comparison of bioassays with different exposure time patterns: the added value of dynamic modelling in predictive ecotoxicology.

The purpose of this study was to compare Daphnia magna responses to cadmium between two toxicity experiments performed in static and flow-through conditions. As a consequence of how water was renewed, the two experiments were characterised by two different exposure time patterns for daphnids, time-varying and constant, respectively. Basing on survival, growth and reproduction, we addressed the questions of organism development and sensitivity to cadmium. Classical analysis methods are not designed to deal with the time dimension and therefore not suitable to compare effects of different exposure time patterns. We used instead a dynamic modelling framework taking all timepoints and the time course of exposure into account, making comparable the results obtained from our two experiments. This modelling framework enabled us to detect an improvement of organism development in flow-through conditions compared to static ones and infer similar sensitivity to cadmium for both exposure time patterns.

Bayesian modelling of daphnid responses to time-varying cadmium exposure in laboratory aquatic microcosms.

Experiments were carried out to test the effects of cadmium on five aquatic species in 2-L indoor freshwater/sediment microcosms. Experimental data were collected over 21 days in static conditions, i.e. the microcosms evolved without water renewal. Because of speciation, the total cadmium concentration in water decreased with time. Here we present a focus on Daphnia magna responses. For the three life history traits we considered (survival, growth and reproduction), mathematical effect models were built based on threshold stress functions involving no effect concentrations (NECs). These models took the time-varying conditions of exposure into account through a time-recurrent formalism. Within a Bayesian framework, four kinds of data were fitted simultaneously (exposure, survival, growth and reproduction), using an appropriate error model for each endpoint. Hence, NECs were determined as well as their associated estimation uncertainty. Through this modelling approach, we demonstrate that thresholds for stress functions can be successfully inferred even in experimental setup more complex than standard bioassays.