A 48-h Larval Development Toxicity Test Using the Marine Polychaete Galeolaria Caespitosa Lamarck (Fam. Serpulidae)

Assessing the risk of effluents and other anthropogenic inputs to the receiving environment is ultimately best done on a site-specific basis, which often requires toxicity tests using organisms relevant to that environment. Additionally, the test species or life stage needs to be available for a reasonable portion of the year to allow temporal fluctuations to be assessed. A 48-h larval development toxicity test using the marine polychaete  Galeolaria caespitosa  was developed. This test was developed as  G. caespitosa  releases viable gametes year-round, and the test species is environmentally relevant to the marine system receiving the liquid effluent being evaluated. Toxicity tests were conducted using  G. caespitosa  from different locations and evaluating the gamete response to copper. All population responses were comparable, with EC50 values ranging from 16 to 40 μg/L copper (as CuCl 2 · 2H 2 O). Toxicity tests were also conducted using  G. caespitosa  gametes with an effluent produced by a lead smelting operation. The response of the  G. caespitosa  test with this effluent was compared with three other test methods using two microalgal species,  Isochrysis  sp. and  Nitzschia closterium , and gametes from the mussel  Mytilus edulis . The  G. caespitosa  larval development toxicity test was the most sensitive test to the effluent, with EC50 values ranging from 1–23% effluent, while it ranked second in sensitivity to copper. This test could be applied to other common serpulids worldwide.