Modelling toxicity and mode of action of chemicals to analyse growth and emergence tests with the midge Chironomus riparius

We present a new growth test data analysis for toxicity tests with the midge Chironomus riparius. The analysis is based on mathematical models which proved to be able to predict growth and emergence of non-exposed organisms for diverse feeding levels or densities. Here, we adapt these models to account for toxicity. We distinguish between two modes of action of the compounds: decrease of feeding or increase of growth energy costs. The models are used to analyse growth data with organisms exposed to copper spiked artificial sediments. Both models provide a good fitting of the data in the case of feeding ad libitum, but only the growth costs model can account for effects of copper in the case of food limitation. We also show that the threshold of effects do not depend on the age (the no effect concentrations (NOEC) are 6, 7 and 9 mg/kg, respectively, for second, third and fourth instars larvae), but that, as soon as this threshold is exceeded, fourth instar larvae are less affected by copper than earlier larvae. Our models constitute a step towards a more biologically relevant analysis of standardized tests, which should facilitate both the understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity and the change of scale from the individual to the population. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.