The use of cohorts and populations in chronic toxicity studies with Daphnia magna: a cadmium example.

Two semistatic life table experiments with Daphnia magna were carried out on reconstituted and Lake IJssel water. The "nontoxic concentrations" for cadmium with respect to the intrinsic rate of natural increase, derived from age-specific survival and fecundity were 1 and 3.2 micrograms/liter, respectively. Body length appeared to be a sensitive parameter. A third intermittent-flow experiment was started with small, exponentially growing populations. These populations had a stable age distribution, were composed of cohorts of different ages and showed an almost perfect logistic growth. Cadmium was shown to reduce the upper numerical limit (carrying capacity) for D. magna and was inversely related to this parameter: log Y = 2.85 -0.20 log [Cd]; r = -0.99. A "nontoxic concentration" could not be established. Based on the "background" concentration of cadmium, a freshwater quality criterion of 0.1 microgram/liter is proposed. The results are used to discuss several shortcomings of the current methods. Finally it is stated that the introduction of the concepts of population dynamics in reproduction tests with D. magna is a realistic step towards ecotoxicology.