Gammarus pulex

As noted earlier, OPs are known to be highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and to fish. This has been demonstrated in field studies. For example, malathion applied to watercress beds caused lethal intoxication of the freshwater shrimp Gammarus pulex located downstream (Crane et al. 1995). Kills of marine invertebrates have been reported following the application of OPs. Accidental release of OPs into rivers, lakes, and bays has sometimes caused large-scale fish kills (see Environmental Health Criteria 63). 

Crane, M., Delaney, R, and Watson, S. et al. (1995). The effect of malathion 60 on Gammarus pulex below water cress beds. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 14, 1181-1188. 

Matthiessen, P., Sheahan, D., and Harrison, R. et al. (1995). Use of a Gammarus pulex bioassay to measure the effects of transient carbofuran runoff from farmland. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 30, 111-119. 

Maund, S.J., E.J. Taylor, and D. Pascoe. 1992. Population responses of the freshwater amphipod crustacean Gammarus pulex (L.) to copper. Freshwater Biol. 28 29-36. 

Howell, R. 1985. Effect of zinc on cadmium toxicity to the amphipod Gammarus pulex. Hydrobiologia 123 245-249. 

Abel, P.D. and S.M. Garner. 1986. Comparison of median survival times and median lethal exposure times for Gammarus pulex exposed to cadmium, permethrin and cyanide. Water Res. 20 579-582. 

Crane, M., Attwood, C., Sheahan, D. and Morris, S. (1999) Toxicity and bioavailability of the organophosphoms insecticide pirimiphos methyl to the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex L. in laboratory and mesocosm systems, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 18 (7), 1456-1461. 

Relation between sublethal (EC50) or lethal (LC50) toxicity values (pg/L) and exposure duration (in hours) for the microcrustacean Daphnia magna, the macrocrustacean Gammarus pulex, and the flatworm Dugesia lugubris exposed to the fungicide carbendazim... 

Daphnia magna Gammarus pulex Dugesia lugubris... 

FIGURE 6.5 Dynamics of numbers of the aquatic stages of 2 ephemeropteran insects Cloeon dipterum (A) and Caenis horaria (B), and of the cladoceran Simocephalus vetulus (C) and the amphipod Gammarus pulex (D). Source Redrawn from data from van den Brink et al. (1996). 

McCahon CP, Pascoe D. 1988. Use of Gammarus pulex (L.) in safety evaluation tests culture and selection of a sensitive life stage. Ecotoxicol Environ Safety 15 245-252. 

In some cases, the effects of complex environmental mixtures could be accounted for in terms of concentration-additive effects of a few chemicals. In sediments of the German river Spittelwasser, which were contaminated by chemical industries in its vicinity, around 10 chemicals of a cocktail of several hundred compounds were found to explain the toxicity of the complex mixture to different aquatic organisms (Brack et al. 1999). The complex mixture of chemicals contained in motorway runoff proved toxic to a crustacean species (Gammarus pulex). Boxall and Maltby (1997) identified 3 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as the cause of this toxicity. Subsequent laboratory experiments with reconstituted mixtures revealed that the toxicity of motorway runoff could indeed be traced to the combined concentration-additive effects of the 3 PAHs. Svenson et al. (2000) identified 4 fatty acids and 2 monoterpenes to be responsible for the inhibitory effects on the nitrification activity of the bacteria Nitrobacter in wastewater from a plant for drying wood-derived fuel. The toxicity of the synthetic mixture composed of 6 dominant toxicants agreed well with the toxicity of the original sample. 

Ashauer R, Boxall ABA, Brown CD 2007a. Modeling combined effects of pulsed exposure to carbaryl and chlorpyrifos on Gammarus pulex. Environ Sci Technol 41 5535-5541. 

Grafa, M. A. S., Maltby, L. Calow, P. (1993). Importance of fungi in the diet of Gammarus pulex and Asellus aquaticus II. Effects on growth, reproduction and physiology. Oecologia, 96, 304-9. 

In view of support to the implementation of the EC WFD (European Commission, 2000) in situ biomonitoring was performed along the rivers Meuse (at the RIZA monitoring station in Eijsden, NL), Aller (DE) and Rhine (at the APRONA monitoring station in Huningue, FR) within the frame of the European Union-funded Project SWIFT-WFD. Gammarus pulex, a detritus feeder, was used as a test organism. 

Gerhardt A., Kienle C., Allan I.J., et al., 2007. Biomonitoring with Gammarus pulex at the Meuse (NL), Aller (GER) and Rhine (F) rivers with the online Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor , J Environ Monit 9 979-85. 

Maltby, L., Clayton, S.A., Wood, R.M. and McLoughlin, N. (2002). Evaluation of the Gammarus pulex in situ feeding assay as a biomonitor of water quality robustness, responsiveness, and reliance. Environ. Toxicol. Chem., 21, 361-368. 

---