The aquatic risk assessment for nickel (Ni) in the European Union is based on chronic species sensitivity distributions and the use of bioavailability models. To test whether a bioavailability-based safe threshold of Ni (the hazardous concentration for 5% of species [HC5]) is protective for aquatic communities, microcosms were exposed to 5 stable Ni treatments (6-96 μg/L) and a control for 4 mo to assess bioaccumulation and effects on phytoplankton, periphyton, zooplankton, and snails. Concentrations of Ni in the periphyton, macrophytes, and snails measured at the end of the exposure period increased in a dose-dependent manner but did not indicate biomagnification. Abundance of phytoplankton and snails decreased in 48 μg Ni/L and 96 μg Ni/L treatments, which may have indirectly affected the abundance of zooplankton and periphyton. Exposure up to 24 μg Ni/L had no adverse effects on algae and zooplankton, whereas the rate of population decline of the snails at 24 μg Ni/L was significantly higher than in the controls. Therefore, the study-specific overall no-observed-adverse-effect concentration (NOAEC) is 12 μg Ni/L. This NOAEC is approximately twice the HC5 derived from a chronic species sensitivity distribution considering the specific water chemistry of the microcosm by means of bioavailability models. Thus, the present study provides support to the protectiveness of the bioavailability-normalized HC5 for freshwater communities.
Keywords: Biotic ligand model; Chronic exposure; Community-level effect; Higher tier test; Metal.
© 2015 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.