Abstract
In order to study the effect of anthropogenic substances on freshwater and marine ecosystems and to develop methods to derive water-quality criteria, ecotoxicological testing is required. While toxicity assessments are traditionally based on dissolved metal concentrations, assuming that toxicity is caused by waterborne metal only, it was recently pointed out that also the dietary exposure route should be carefully considered and interpreted in regulatory assessments of zinc. In this context, the aim of this experimental study was to develop a method which allows the uptake of waterborne and dietary zinc by Daphnia magna and the interaction between both exposure routes to be studied. Therefore, the setup of a dual isotopic tracer study was required. During several days, daphnids were exposed to 67Zn and 68Zn via the dietary and the waterborne routes, respectively, and after several time intervals the daphnids were sampled and subjected to isotopic analysis by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS). In order to obtain reliable and accurate results for zinc, special care was taken to prevent contamination and to deal with the spectral interferences traditionally hindering the determination of zinc. The figures of merit of both a quadrupole-based ICP–MS instrument equipped with a dynamic reaction cell, and a sector field ICP–MS unit were studied, and it was concluded that by using a sector field mass spectrometer operated at medium mass resolution all interferences could be overcome adequately. Although the set-up of the exposure experiments seems to be rather simple at first sight, it was shown in this work that several (dynamic) variables can have an influence on the results obtained and on the subsequent data interpretation. The importance of these confounding factors was examined, and on the basis of preliminary calculations it became clear that not only the isotopic composition of the daphnids has to be studied—adequate monitoring of the isotopic composition of the dissolved phase and the algae during the exposure of the daphnids is also required to accurately discriminate between uptake from water and from food.
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Acknowledgements
L.I.L. Balcaen and K.A.C. De Schamphelaere are Senior Research Assistants of the Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen). The research was supported by the Ghent University Research Fund (BOF) and two research projects from the FWO-Vlaanderen (G058506 and G004606). Additional support was obtained from the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO). The authors wish to thank Leen Van Imp, Emmy Pequeur, Gisèle Bockstael, Jill Van Reybrouck, and Niko Thoen for technical assistance.
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Lieve I.L. Balcaen and Karel A.C. De Schamphelaere contributed equally to this study
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Balcaen, L.I.L., De Schamphelaere, K.A.C., Janssen, C.R. et al. Development of a method for assessing the relative contribution of waterborne and dietary exposure to zinc bioaccumulation in Daphnia magna by using isotopically enriched tracers and ICP–MS detection. Anal Bioanal Chem 390, 555–569 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-007-1620-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-007-1620-5