Liu Qiang, Xu Xiaoqun, Zeng Jiangning, Huang Wei, Xu Xudan, Shou Lu, Chen Quanzhen
Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, No. 36, Baochu North Road, Hangzhou, 310012, China.
Key Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem and Biogeochemistry, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China.
Ecotoxicology. 2019 May;28(4):412-421. doi: 10.1007/s10646-019-02032-2. Epub 2019 Mar 14.
The development of marine water quality criteria (WQC) in China has been insufficient because data on the toxicity of pollutants for marine organisms based on the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) method are lacking. The Chinese aquatic environmental quality standards, including those for seawater, were derived from the developed countries. Therefore, establishing Chinese marine WQC is crucial for identifying the sensitivity of marine species in China and will improve their protection from threats. Mercury (Hg) is one of the primary pollutants commonly exceeding Chinese seawater quality standards. Several countries have developed their marine WQC for inorganic Hg in the past decades, but no study has been conducted in China. In this study, 45 acute toxicity and 14 chronic toxicity data of inorganic Hg on the marine species which inhabit in China were obtained mainly from the ECOTOX database, the CNKI, and the Google Scholar. The acute and chronic hazardous concentrations for 5% of the species (HC) were calculated based on the best-fit distribution model Sweibull. The criteria for maximum and continuous concentrations of 1.30 and 0.66 μg/L, respectively, for inorganic Hg to protect marine organisms in China were derived by halving the HC values. The criteria were comparable to those of the United States, Australia, and the European Union countries, indicating the general applicability of WQCs developed based on the classical SSD method using different species groups. This study may provide valuable information for assessing marine ecological risk in China.
中国海水水质标准（WQC）的制定一直不够完善，因为缺乏基于物种敏感度分布（SSD）方法得出的污染物对海洋生物毒性的数据。中国的水生环境质量标准，包括海水水质标准，都是借鉴发达国家的。因此，制定中国的海洋WQC对于确定中国海洋物种的敏感度、加强对它们的保护以抵御威胁至关重要。汞（Hg）是中国海水水质标准中常见的主要超标污染物之一。过去几十年里，一些国家已经制定了各自的无机汞海洋WQC，但中国尚未开展相关研究。在本研究中，主要从ECOTOX数据库、中国知网和谷歌学术搜索获取了45个无机汞对中国海洋物种的急性毒性数据和14个慢性毒性数据。基于最佳拟合分布模型Sweibull计算了5%物种的急性和慢性危害浓度（HC）。通过将HC值减半，得出了保护中国海洋生物的无机汞最大浓度标准和连续浓度标准，分别为1.30μg/L和0.66μg/L。这些标准与美国、澳大利亚和欧盟国家的标准相当，表明基于经典SSD方法使用不同物种组制定的WQC具有普遍适用性。本研究可为评估中国海洋生态风险提供有价值的信息。
