Fluoride Bioaccumulation and Toxic Effects on the Survival and Behavior of the Endangered White-Clawed Crayfish Austropo
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Fluoride Bioaccumulation and Toxic Effects on the Survival and Behavior of the Endangered White-Clawed Crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet) ´ lvaro Alonso Arantxa Aguirre-Sierra • A Julio A. Camargo
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Received: 31 October 2012 / Accepted: 3 March 2013 / Published online: 27 March 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Laboratory experiments were performed to examine the toxic effects of fluoride (F–) on the survival and behavior of white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes). Body fluoride contents (bioaccumulation) of test crayfish were also examined. No significant differences between male and female crayfish regarding mortality, escape (tail-flip) response, and fluoride bioaccumulation were detected. For mortality, 48-, 72-, 96-, 120-, 144-, 168-, and 192-h median lethal concentrations (LC50) were estimated to be 93.0, 55.3, 42.7, 36.5, 32.9, 30.6, and 28.9 mg F–/l, respectively. For the escape response, 48-, 72-, 96-, 120-, 144-, 168- and 192-h median effective concentrations (EC50) were estimated to be 18.4, 11.1, 8.6, 7.4, 6.7, 6.2 and 5.9 mg F–/l, respectively. Average food consumption in test crayfish tended to decrease with increasing water fluoride concentration with a 192-h lowest–observed effect concentration of 10.7 mg F–/l. These results indicate that the escape response was the most sensitive end point to fluoride toxicity followed by food consumption and mortality. Fluoride bioaccumulation in test crayfish increased with increasing water fluoride concentration and exposure time. The exoskeleton accumulated more fluoride than muscle. A comparison of the obtained results with previous data for other freshwater invertebrates shows that white-clawed crayfish are relatively tolerant to fluoride toxicity. We conclude that fluoride pollution in freshwater ecosystems should not be viewed as an important risk factor contributing to the catastrophic decrease of A. pallipes in many European
´ . Alonso J. A. Camargo (&) A. Aguirre-Sierra A Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Unidad Docente de Ecologı´a, Universidad de Alcala´, 28871 Alcala´ de Henares, Spain e-mail: [email protected]
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countries. Our results indicate that fluoride bioaccumulation in A. pallipes might be used as a bioindicator of fluoride pollution in freshwater ecosystems where it is present.
Concentrations of fluoride ion (F–) in unpolluted freshwaters usually range from 0.01 to 0.3 mg F–/l, whereas in unpolluted seawaters they generally range from 1.2 to 1.5 mg F–/l (World Health Organization [WHO] 2002; Camargo 2003; Weinstein and Davison 2004). Unfortunately, fluoride must be considered as a serious pollutant because its concentration in many aquatic ecosystems is significantly increasing as a consequence of human activities. Aluminum and zinc smelters, phosphate fertilizer plants, plants producing fluoride chemicals, plants manufacturing brick, ceramics, and glass, use of fluoride-containing pesticides, and discharges of fluoridated municipal waters can considerably increase the natur
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