Could Contamination Avoidance Be an Endpoint That Protects the Environment? An Overview on How Species Respond to Copper, Glyphosate, and Silver Nanoparticles

The use of non-forced multi-compartmented exposure systems has gained importance in the assessment of the contamination-driven spatial avoidance response. This new paradigm of exposure makes it possible to assess how contaminants fragment habitats, interfering in the spatial distribution and species’ habitat selection processes. In this approach, organisms are exposed to a chemically heterogeneous scenario (a gradient or patches of contamination) and the response is focused on identifying the contamination levels considered aversive for organisms. Despite the interesting results that have been recently published, the use of this approach in ecotoxicological risk studies is still incipient. The current review aims to show the sensitivity of spatial avoidance in non-forced exposure systems in comparison with the traditional endpoints used in ecotoxicology under forced exposure. To do this, we have used the sensitivity profile by biological groups (SPBG) to offer an overview of the highly sensitive biological groups and the species sensitive distribution (SSD) to estimate the hazard concentration for 5% of the species (HC5). Three chemically different compounds were selected for this review: copper, glyphosate, and Ag-NPs. The results show that contamination-driven spatial avoidance is a very sensitive endpoint that could be integrated as a complementary tool to ecotoxicological studies in order to provide an overview of the level of repellence of contaminants. This repellence is a clear example of how contamination might fragment ecosystems, prevent connectivity among populations and condition the distribution of biodiversity.

Assessing the Impacts of Chloride and Sulfate Ions on Macroinvertebrate Communities in Ohio Streams

Salinization of freshwaters is a growing concern, especially in urban catchments. Existing aquatic life criteria for chloride (230 mg/L; a US standard) or total dissolved solids (1500 mg/L; specific to Ohio) do not protect sensitive species, and standards for sulfate have yet to be promulgated on the national level. To help identify water quality thresholds for protection and restoration, species sensitivity distributions were compiled for chloride and sulfate based on field observations of macroinvertebrate communities co-located with water quality samples obtained from rivers and streams throughout Ohio. Additionally, attainment of biological benchmarks for macroinvertebrate communities found in headwater streams were modeled against chloride and sulfate using Bayesian logistic regression. The hazard concentration based on statewide data for chloride was 52 mg/L. The hazard concentration for sulfate based on data from the Western Allegheny Plateau ecoregion was 152 mg/L. The median effect levels from logistic regression for chloride and sulfate varied by ecoregion. Mayfly taxa were disproportionately represented in taxa comprising the lower 5th percentile of the species sensitivity distributions for chloride. However, logistic regression models of individual taxa response (as presence/absence) revealed that some taxa considered sensitive to pollution in general were highly tolerant of chloride. For 166 taxa showing directional response to chloride, 91 decreased and 75 increased. For the 97 individual taxa showing directional responses to sulfate, 81 decreased. Of the 16 taxa showing an increase, 6 are considered tolerant of pollution, 9 facultative and 1 moderately intolerant, the latter being taxa in the dipteran family Tipulidae. The hazard concentrations are useful as protective thresholds for existing high-quality waters. The logistic regression model of attainment can be used to inform management goals conditional on site-specific information.

ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ ЗАБРУДНЮЮЧИХ РЕЧОВИН ҐРУНТУ ТЕРИТОРІЙ ПРОМИСЛОВИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ТА ІДЕНТИФІКАЦІЯ ЇХ ЕКОЛОГІЧНОЇ НЕБЕЗПЕКИ

У роботі наведено результати якісного й кількіс-ного аналізу забруднюючих речовин ґрунту територіїпромислового підприємства, що зупинило свою діяль-ність, а саме Сакського державного хімічного заво-ду. Встановлено, що в пробах ґрунту знаходитьсящонайменше 26 забрудників, п’ять з яких відносятьсядо речовин першого класу небезпеки. Дослідженоконцентрації забрудників та виявлено, що в окремихпробах вони перевищують граничнодопустимі у 2–295разів. Висвітлено фактори екологічної небезпекиокремих забрудників, зокрема впливу на організм лю-дини. This paper presents the results of qualitative and quantitative analysis of soil pollutants of the industrial enterprises stopped their activities, such as Saki State Chemical Plant. It was found that in samples of soil there are at least 26 pollutants, 5 of which belong to the first class of substances hazard. Concentration of pollutants were investigated and found that in some samples they exceed the maximum permissible concentration in 2-295 times. Article deals with environmental hazard factors of specific pollutants, in particular the impact on the human organism.