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Effect of Nutrition on Toxicity of Contaminants to the Epibenthic Amphipod Melita plumulosa

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An Erratum to this article was published on 18 September 2008

Abstract

The amphipod Melita plumulosa is commonly used to assess the toxicity of contaminated sediments. Seven-day-old M. plumulosa are <1 mm in size, and during 10-day tests in sandy sediments with low nutritional value, starvation can cause >50% mortality. In sediment toxicity tests, therefore, it can be difficult to determine if toxicity is due to contaminants or starvation, particularly in contaminated sandy sediments. This study investigated the influence of amphipod age and food addition on amphipod survival in toxicity tests. The 4-day LC50 increased linearly from 120 to 470 μg/L when M. plumulosa age at the beginning of the test increased from 5 to 30 days. The addition of food as algae or fish food did not significantly affect the sensitivity of 11-day-old M. plumulosa (11-d Mp) to dissolved copper over 4 days in water-only tests. The survival of 11-d Mp in water-only tests over 10 days was poor without feeding, but when fed fish food, the 10-day LC50 was 76 ± 15 μg/L. In sediment tests, feeding 0.063 mg fish food/amphipod on days 3 and 7 of 10-day tests consistently resulted in greater than 80% survival of 11-d Mp for a range of clean, sandy sediments, which had low amphipod survival without added food. Algae were not always suitable as a food source, as their growth can be stimulated by nutrients released from sediment and was inhibited by contaminants. The toxicity of most contaminated sediments was not ameliorated by the addition of food, suggesting that food addition was suitable for inclusion in routine testing protocols for this amphipod.

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Acknowledgments

Ian Hamilton is thanked for assisting with amphipod culturing and some toxicity tests. Jenny Stauber, Graeme Batley, Anu Kumar, and two other anonymous reviewers are thanked for their comments on the manuscript before publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research, CSIRO Land and Water, Private Mailbag 7, Bangor, NSW, 2234, Australia

    D. A. Spadaro, T. Micevska & S. L. Simpson

Authors
  1. D. A. Spadaro
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  2. T. Micevska
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  3. S. L. Simpson
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Correspondence to S. L. Simpson.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00244-008-9238-y

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Spadaro, D.A., Micevska, T. & Simpson, S.L. Effect of Nutrition on Toxicity of Contaminants to the Epibenthic Amphipod Melita plumulosa . Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 55, 593–602 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-008-9153-2

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