A practical approach to the assessment of risk to Antarctic marine organisms from environmental contaminants: Modelled 10 day and 4 day LC50 from rapid tests at Casey 2005/06

• Other Authors: Institute for Applied Ecology (isManagedBy), Ben KEFFORD (Creator), Ben KEFFORD (Contact)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Canberra
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Austral; Casey Station; Meier; Antarc*; Antarctica; Australian Antarctic Division
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/practical-approach-assessment-casey-200506/1447319; https://doi.org/10.4225/15/53828B5466E52; https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/ASAC_2677

External Organisations Australian Antarctic Division Associated Persons Catherine King (Data Collector) Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2677
 
 Data on the sensitivity of Antarctic marine organisms to contaminants is limited, and is essential to understanding the risks contaminants pose to the Antarctic environment. The use of traditional toxicity assessment approaches, to collect high quality sensitivity data for a range of species, is a time consuming and difficult process, especially in remote and hostile environments like Antarctica. In this project, we used a rapid toxicity test approach (described by Kefford et al. 2005) to determine the approximate sensitivity of a large and representative sample of Antarctic marine invertebrates to three common metals (cadmium, copper, zinc). Sensitivity estimates generated via this method are likely to be less precise than those derived from traditional toxicity test methods (due to lower replication and fewer exposure concentrations), but a much larger number of estimates for a wider and more representative range of taxa are able to be produced (under equivalent resourcing). This is advantageous for subsequent Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) models, which will include more species and will be more robust, producing protective concentration values that represent a greater proportion of the biodiversity of the region. In this study, a total of 88 different taxa were tested during the 2005/06 Austral summer at Casey station; specimens were collected from a wide range of intertidal and shallow sub-tidal marine sites, providing good representation of the nearshore marine invertebrate community as a whole for this region. Tests were of 10 day duration, with a water change at 4 days. Sensitivity estimates were modelled (LCx; concentrations lethal to x% of the test populations) at 4 and 10 days of exposure, calculated using measured metal concentrations. A series of SSDs were constructed using LC50 values, each one including sensitivity estimates for up to 87 taxa. SSDs were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier function (results provided here) and a log-likelihood based method (available via Kefford et al submitted 2018), both of which allowed inclusion of right- and interval-censored sensitivity data. The results of this work provides a basis for estimating the risk of exposure to three common metal contaminants to Antarctic marine invertebrates.