State Key Laboratory of Environment Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
College of Public Management, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang 550000, China.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2017 Nov 30;124(2):639-644. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.02.055. Epub 2017 Feb 27.
Marine pollution by metals has been a major challenge for ecological systems; however, water quality criteria (WQC) for metals in saltwater is still lacking. Especially from a regulatory perspective, chronic effects of metals on marine organisms should receive more attention. A quantitative ion characteristic-activity relationships-species sensitivity distributions (QICAR-SSD) model, based on chronic toxicities for eight marine organisms, was established to predict the criteria continuous concentrations (CCCs) of 21 metals. The results showed that the chronic toxicities of various metals had good relationships with their physicochemical properties. Predicted CCCs of six metals (Hg, Cu, Pb, Cd, Ni and Zn) were in accordance with the values recommended by the U.S. EPA, with prediction errors being less than an order of magnitude. The QICAR-SSD approach provides an alternative tool to empirical methods and can be useful for deriving scientifically defensible WQC for metals for marine organisms and conducting ecological risk assessments.
海洋金属污染一直是生态系统面临的主要挑战；然而，目前仍缺乏海水金属的水质标准（WQC）。特别是从监管的角度来看，金属对海洋生物的慢性影响应该得到更多的关注。本研究基于八种海洋生物的慢性毒性数据，建立了定量离子特征-活性关系-物种敏感性分布（QICAR-SSD）模型，用以预测 21 种金属的水质基准连续浓度（CCC）。结果表明，各种金属的慢性毒性与其物理化学性质具有良好的相关性。六种金属（Hg、Cu、Pb、Cd、Ni 和 Zn）的预测 CCC 值与美国 EPA 推荐值一致，预测误差小于一个数量级。QICAR-SSD 方法为经验方法提供了一种替代工具，可用于为海洋生物推导具有科学依据的金属水质标准，并进行生态风险评估。
