Use of the Species Sensitivity Distribution Approach to Derive Ecological Threshold of Toxicological Concern (eco-TTC) for Pesticides

Cristiana Rizzi, Sara Villa, Alessandro Sergio Cuzzeri and Antonio Finizio
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Cristiana Rizzi: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences DISAT, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Sara Villa: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences DISAT, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Alessandro Sergio Cuzzeri: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences DISAT, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Antonio Finizio: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences DISAT, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 22, 1-13

Abstract: The species sensitivity distribution (SSD) calculates the hazardous concentration at which 5% of species (HC 5 ) will be potentially affected. For many compounds, HC 5 values are unavailable impeding the derivation of SSD curves. Through a detailed bibliographic survey, we selected HC 5 values (from acute toxicity tests) for freshwater aquatic species and 129 pesticides. The statistical distribution and variability of the HC 5 values within the chemical classes were evaluated. Insecticides are the most toxic compounds in the aquatic communities (HC 5 = 1.4 × 10 ?3 µmol L ?1 ), followed by herbicides (HC 5 = 3.3 × 10 ?2 µmol L ?1 ) and fungicides (HC 5 = 7.8 µmol L ?1 ). Subsequently, the specificity of the mode of action (MoA) of pesticides on freshwater aquatic communities was investigated by calculating the ratio between the estimated baseline toxicity for aquatic communities and the HC 5 experimental values gathered from the literature. Moreover, we proposed and validated a scheme to derive the ecological thresholds of toxicological concern (eco-TTC) of pesticides for which data on their effects on aquatic communities are not available. We proposed eco-TTCs for different classes of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides with a specific MoA, and three eco-TTCs for those chemicals with unavailable MoA. We consider the proposed approach and eco-TTC values useful for risk management purposes.

Keywords: species sensitivity distribution (SSD); pesticides; environmental risk assessment; aquatic communities; ecological threshold of toxicological concern (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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