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Determining the sensitivity of the Antarctic amphipod Orchomenella pinguides to metals using a joint model of survival response to exposure concentration and duration

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Abstract

Developing water quality guidelines for Antarctic marine environments requires understanding the sensitivity of local biota to contaminant exposure. Antarctic invertebrates have shown slower contaminant responses in previous experiments compared to temperate and tropical species in standard toxicity tests. Consequently, test methods which take into account environmental conditions and biological characteristics of cold climate species need to be developed. This study investigated the effects of five metals on the survival of a common Antarctic amphipod, Orchomenella pinguides. Multiple observations assessing mortality to metal exposure were made over the 30 days exposure period. Traditional toxicity tests with quantal data sets are analysed using methods such as maximum likelihood regression (probit analysis) and Spearman–Kärber which treat individual time period endpoints independently. A new statistical model was developed to integrate the time-series concentration–response data obtained in this study. Grouped survival data were modelled using a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) which incorporates all the data obtained from multiple observation times to derive time integrated point estimates. The sensitivity of the amphipod, O. pinguides, to metals increased with increasing exposure time. Response times varied for different metals with amphipods responding faster to copper than to cadmium, lead or zinc. As indicated by 30 days lethal concentration (LC50) estimates, copper was the most toxic metal (31 µg/L), followed by cadmium (168 µg/L), lead (256 µg/L) and zinc (822 µg/L). Nickel exposure (up to 1.12 mg/L) did not affect amphipod survival. Using longer exposure durations and utilising the GAMM model provides an improved methodology for assessing sensitivities of slow responding Antarctic marine invertebrates to contaminants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the 2010–2011 summer Marine Science team at Davis Station, East Antarctic, including John van den Hoff, Lara Marcus, Sarah Payne, Ashley Miskelly, Melanie Ho, Jessica Ericson and Kathryn Brown for their support in field collections and experimental work. Thanks also to Andrew Bryant, Debbie Lang and Ashley Cooper for laboratory support, and to the Davis Station community for supporting this scientific research. This research was supported through an Australian Antarctic Science Grant (AAS 2933) awarded to C. King and through an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship to B. Sfiligoj.

Conflict of interest

The funding for the project was granted by the Australian government and the funding for the postgraduate scholarship was also granted by the Australian government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Terrestrial and Nearshore Ecosystems, Australian Antarctic Division, 203 Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS, 7050, Australia

    Bianca J. Sfiligoj & Catherine K. King

  2. Wildlife Conservation and Fisheries, Australian Antarctic Division, 203 Channel Highway, Kingston, TAS, 7050, Australia

    Steven G. Candy

  3. Centre for Integrated Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, PO Box 423, Warrnambool, VIC, 3280, Australia

    Bianca J. Sfiligoj & Julie A. Mondon

Authors
  1. Bianca J. Sfiligoj
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  2. Catherine K. King
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  3. Steven G. Candy
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  4. Julie A. Mondon
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Correspondence to Bianca J. Sfiligoj.

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Sfiligoj, B.J., King, C.K., Candy, S.G. et al. Determining the sensitivity of the Antarctic amphipod Orchomenella pinguides to metals using a joint model of survival response to exposure concentration and duration. Ecotoxicology 24, 583–594 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1406-4

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