Relative salinity tolerance of macroinvertebrates from the Barwon River, Victoria, Australia

By B. Kefford, P. Papas, D. Nugegoda. 2003

181 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Salinity levels are rising in many freshwater environments, yet there are few direct measurements of salinity tolerance of organisms likely to be salt sensitive. The relative salinity tolerance to artificial seawater of macroinvertebrates from the Barwon River in Victoria, Australia, was assessed by measuring the 72-h lethal concentrations required to kill 50% of individuals (LC50). LC50 values ranged from an electrical conductivity of 5.5 to 76 mS cm–1 (mean 31 mS cm–1, n = 57) and followed a log-normal distribution. The most salt-sensitive groups tested were Baetidae (LC50 value range: 5.5–6.2 mS cm–1), Chironomidae (10 mS cm–1) and several soft-bodied non-arthropods (Oligochaeta, Gastropoda, Nematomorpha, Tricladida and Hirudinea; 9–14 mS cm–1). Other groups, from least to most tolerant, were non-baetid Ephmeroptera (>12.6–15 mS cm–1), Plecoptera (>12.6–>20 mS cm–1), Trichoptera (9–>26 mS cm–1), Corixidae (18–26 mS cm–1), non-corixid Hemiptera (33–44 mS cm–1), Coleoptera (19–54 mS cm–1), Hydracarina (39 mS cm–1) and Odonata (30–55 mS cm–1), and macrocrustaceans (Decapoda, Isopoda and Amphipoda; 38–76 mS cm–1).

Subfields: Ecology, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/593b84242e18c8a1e2518ff1a4b2b3567c6fd435

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In Ecology

1. B. Kefford
2. L. Zalizniak
3. K. Hassell
4. Elizabeth J. Fields
5. D. Nugegoda
6. C. Palmer
7. A. Pinder
8. R. Shiel

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

1. C. Palmer
2. B. Kefford
3. D. Nugegoda

Citations in the corpus

• The salinity tolerance of freshwater macroinvertebrate eggs and hatchlings in comparison to their older life-stages: a diversity of responses (2007, methodology): “For comparison with the results in other units the relationships for Ocean Nature are: TDS = 0.754 EC and osmolarity = 0.0184 EC (Kefford et al. 2003), where TDS is total dissolved solids in g l–1, EC is in mS cm–1, and osmolarity is in Osmol kg H2O –1.”
• Biodiversity and Structure of Macroinvertebrate Communities Along a Small Permanent Salinity Gradient (Meurthe River, France) (2005, background): “These results are in accordance with several studies showing that Crustacea are the most salinity tolerant of the major invertebrate taxa groups (Williams et al., 1990; Kefford et al., 2003), whereas the Ephemeroptera are among the least tolerant invertebrates (Hynes, 1966; Williams et al.”
• Occurrence of aquatic invertebrates of the wheatbelt region of Western Australia in relation to salinity (2005, background): “…of the toxicity of salt, often combined with studies of underlying osmoregulatory mechanisms (e.g. Bayly & Ellis, 1969; Mills & Geddes, 1988; Kefford & Papas, 2003) and field studies that record the salinity at which species and communities are found (e.g. Kay et al., 2001; Timms & Boulton,…”
• The salinity tolerance of eggs and hatchlings of selected aquatic macroinvertebrates in south-east Australia and South Africa (2004, background): “This paper investigates the salinity tolerances of eggs or very early life-stages of a variety of macroinvertebrates from south-east Australia and South Africa, as part of a larger study, investigating acute lethal tolerances of older stages (Kefford et al., 2003) and sub-lethal tolerances (T.”
• Exploring the effects of salinization on trophic diversity in freshwater ecosystems: a quantitative review (2018, background): “gov/ecotox/), EcoSun Laboratories, and toxicity databases from the Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality and Institute for Water Research (UCEWQ-IWR); (SEWRPC Community Assistance Planning Report, 2001; Kefford et al., 2003; Palmer et al., 2004; Browne, 2005; Slaughter, 2005).”
• What is Meant by “95% of Species”? An Argument for the Inclusion of Rapid Tolerance Testing (2005, methodology): “The 5th percentile of 72-hour LC50 values for salinity to species tested by Kefford et al. (2003, 2005) calculated by an empirical function (Kaplan-Meier, see Smith 2002) is 5.5 mS/cm for common species, 11 mS/cm for rare species, and 9.5 mS/cm for all species.”