Influence of pH, hardness, dissolved organic carbon concentration, and dissolved organic matter source on the acute toxicity of copper to Daphnia magna in soft waters: implications for the biotic ligand model.

The influence of pH, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, water hardness, and dissolved organic matter (DOM) source on the acute toxicity of copper were investigated with standardized 48-h Daphnia magna toxicity tests. Toxicity tests were conducted according to a four-factor complete factorial design. Nominal factor levels were as follows: pH 6 and 8; DOC, 2.5 and 10 mg/L; hardness, 10, 20, and 40 mg/L as CaCO3; and two DOM sources (collected from the Black River and Edisto River, SC, USA). The experimental design resulted in 24 different factor level combinations. Results indicated that all factors had significant effects on copper toxicity. Furthermore, a strong interactive effect of DOC concentration and pH was detected. Because the biotic ligand model (BLM) has become a widely used tool for predicting toxicity and interpreting toxicity test results, its performance with these data was evaluated. Seventy percent of BLM predictions were within twofold of the observed median lethal concentrations. However, BLM parameters could be adjusted to improve model performance with this data set. This analysis suggested that in soft waters, the CuOH+ complex binds more strongly with the biotic ligand and that the competitive effect of hardness cations should be increased. The results of the present study may have implications for application of the BLM to some types of surface waters. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis of BLM performance with all available data should be performed, and necessary updates to model parameters should be made to produce the most robust and widely applicable model.