Title: Acute and chronic toxicity of zinc to the mottled sculpin <i>Cottus bairdi</i>
Abstract: Abstract The acute and chronic toxicity of zinc to wild mottled sculpin ( Cottus bairdi ) was measured with 13‐d and 30‐d flow‐through toxicity tests, respectively. Exposure water hardness was 48.6 mg/L as CaCO 3 and 46.3 mg/L as CaCO 3 in the acute and chronic tests, respectively; pH was slightly above neutral; and temperature near 12°C. The median lethal concentration (LC50) after 96 h was 156 μg Zn/L, but decreased with exposure duration to a median incipient lethal level (ILL50) of 38 μg Zn/L after 9 d, the lowest zinc LC50 reported for any fish species. The 30‐d chronic no‐effect and lowest‐effect concentrations were 16 μg Zn/L (no mortality) and 27 μg Zn/L (32% mortality), respectively. The ILL50 was 32 μg Zn/L. No sublethal growth differences were observed during the chronic test. Analysis of the results from these tests suggested that mottled sculpin may experience acute and chronic toxicity at zinc concentrations lower than any other fish species tested to date. Protection of aquatic communities in stream reaches contaminated by metals seem to require determination of zinc toxicity to lotic species other than trout and other species amenable to aquaculture.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 22
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