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Prediction of the joint toxicity of five organophosphorus pesticides to Daphnia magna

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Abstract

The individual toxicities of five organophosphorus pesticides (dichlorvos, parathion, methyl parathion, malathion and dimethoate) to Daphnia magna were investigated in 24-h immobilization experiments. Using these toxicity data, their combined toxicities were measured in pesticide mixtures designed using either ‘equivalent-effect concentration ratios’ or ‘uniform-design concentration ratios’. The toxicities of mixtures of similarly or dissimilarly acting toxicants are often predicted from the individual toxicities of the component compounds, using one of two distinct biometric models: concentration addition (CA) or independent action (IA). The relative accuracies of the CA and IA models were assessed using the model deviation rate (MDR), which represents the difference between the effect predicted from the individual pesticide concentrations and the observed effect. The mean MDR value of CA was 0.93 (range 0.75–1.31) and the mean value obtained by IA was 3.13 (range 2.52–4.37). We conclude that the CA model is better able to predict the joint toxicities of mixtures of organophosphorus pesticides to D. magna.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of the People’s Republic of China (51268008, 21207024), the Ministry of Environmental Protection (201009026), and the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2012ZX07529-003).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, People’s Republic of China

    Hong-Hu Zeng & Chang-Wen Lei

  2. State Key Laboratory for Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Ecological Effects and Risk Assessment of Chemicals, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, No. 8 Dayangfang, Beiyuan Road, Chaoyang Distinct, Beijing, 100012, People’s Republic of China

    Hong-Hu Zeng, Chang-Wen Lei, Ya-Hui Zhang, Ying Cao & Zheng-Tao Liu

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  1. Hong-Hu Zeng
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  2. Chang-Wen Lei
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  3. Ya-Hui Zhang
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  4. Ying Cao
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  5. Zheng-Tao Liu
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Correspondence to Ya-Hui Zhang.

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Zeng, HH., Lei, CW., Zhang, YH. et al. Prediction of the joint toxicity of five organophosphorus pesticides to Daphnia magna . Ecotoxicology 23, 1870–1877 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1347-y

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