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Incorporating bioavailability into toxicity assessment of Cu-Ni, Cu-Cd, and Ni-Cd mixtures with the extended biotic ligand model and the WHAM-F tox approach

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Abstract

There are only a limited number of studies that have developed appropriate models which incorporate bioavailability to estimate mixture toxicity. Here, we explored the applicability of the extended biotic ligand model (BLM) and the WHAM-F tox approach for predicting and interpreting mixture toxicity, with the assumption that interactions between metal ions obey the BLM theory. Seedlings of lettuce Lactuca sativa were exposed to metal mixtures (Cu-Ni, Cu-Cd, and Ni-Cd) contained in hydroponic solutions for 4 days. Inhibition to root elongation was the endpoint used to quantify the toxic response. Assuming that metal ions compete with each other for binding at a single biotic ligand, the extended BLM succeeded in predicting toxicity of three mixtures to lettuce, with more than 82 % of toxicity variation explained. There were no significant differences in the values of f mix50 (i.e., the overall amounts of metal ions bound to the biotic ligand inducing 50 % effect) for the three mixture combinations, showing the possibility of extrapolating these values to other binary metal combinations. The WHAM-F tox approach showed a similar level of precision in estimating mixture toxicity while requiring fewer parameters than the BLM-f mix model. External validation of the WHAM-F tox approach using literature data showed its applicability for other species and other mixtures. The WHAM-F tox model is suitable for delineating mixture effects where the extended BLM also applies. Therefore, in case of lower data availability, we recommend the lower parameterized WHAM-F tox as an effective approach to incorporate bioavailability in quantifying mixture toxicity.

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Acknowledgments

Hao Qiu is a beneficiary of a postdoctoral mobility grant from the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) (Project No. 3E150127). The authors would like to thank Edward Tipping for supporting the data analysis. The authors are grateful to five anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Hao Qiu, Martina G. Vijver, Yang Liu & Willie J. G. M. Peijnenburg

  2. Division Soil and Water Management, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

    Hao Qiu, Erkai He, Erik Smolders & Liske Versieren

  3. Department of Ecological Science, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Erkai He

  4. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Peng Wang

  5. Department of Hydrology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Bing Xia

  6. National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    Willie J. G. M. Peijnenburg

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  1. Hao Qiu
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Correspondence to Erkai He.

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Qiu, H., Vijver, M.G., He, E. et al. Incorporating bioavailability into toxicity assessment of Cu-Ni, Cu-Cd, and Ni-Cd mixtures with the extended biotic ligand model and the WHAM-F tox approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 19213–19223 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5130-2

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