Bioavailability and Effects of Ingested Metals on Aquatic Organisms

The overall goal of this project was to assess the importance of the ingestion route of exposure to chronic toxicity of certain cationic metals in aquatic organisms. The objectives were to summarize the state-of-the-science relative to dietary uptake of metals by aquatic organisms, and to conduct an experimental program that would address the following four questions: 1) Are water quality criteria as currently derived protective for sensitive species without explicitly considering dietary exposure? 2) Can dietary exposure result in effects at environmentally realistic concentrations? 3) Is it possible to establish residue-based effect levels for copper and silver in sensitive marine and freshwater species such that tissue concentrations can be used to evaluate field exposures? 4) Do water and dietary exposures in the laboratory produce effects and tissue concentrations that can be reproduced in the field? Published by WERF. 118 pages. Soft cover and online PDF. (2007)

Originally funded as WERF project 01-ECO-4T.