| Summary: | This data contains consists of one Excel spreadsheet file containing the thermal stress data used to develop the Species Sensitivity Distribution described in the publication: Negri, A.P., Smith, R.A., King, O., Frangos, J., Warne, M. St-J., Uthicke, S. (2019) Adjusting tropical marine water quality guideline values for elevated ocean temperatures Environmental Science and Technology 54: 1102-1110 DOI:10.1021/acs.est.9b05961. The increased frequency of heatwaves and poor water quality represent two of the most prevalent and severe pressures faced by coral reefs globally. While these pressures often co-occur, their potential risk to tropical marine species are usually considered alone. The potential effects of heatwaves on water quality guideline values are sometimes addressed by including an arbitrary “safety factor” or are not considered at all. In this study, we applied a mixture toxicity approach to predict how water quality guideline values should change at elevated temperatures. We used the common contaminants copper and diuron (a common herbicide) as examples. We first developed temperature-stress relationship for 41 tropical benthic marine species, using methods adapted from water quality guideline derivation. This enabled us to predict effects on tropical communities as temperature increased. The protection temperature values we calculated were similar to temperatures known to initiate coral bleaching and are suitable for application in multi-stressor risk assessments. This method enabled the adjustment of current water quality guideline values for copper and diuron to account for heatwave events. This approach could be extended to other ecosystems and to sediment, low salinity, light limitation, anoxia and ocean acidification, offering an alternative approach for adjusting environmental guidelines, reporting and risk assessments to account for multiple stressors. Methods: Species sensitivity distribution (SSD) for thermal stress Developing thermal SSD for marine communities requires temperature stress ...
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