Standardization of aquatic bioassays: compromises between biological and economical criteria

A variety of ecotoxicological methods have been worked out and are described in the scientific literature to experimentally predict the impact of chemical substances on aquatic terrestrial biota. Only during recent years have serious efforts been made at both the national and international level to select a few bioassays which should be standardized for general applicability. The choice for a standard bioassay, of the test species as well as of the criterion to assess the dose-effect relationship is a matter of the compromises which one is willing to make between the factors ecological representativeness and sensitivity on one hand, and mangeability in the laboratory and cost of the test on the other hand. This assertion is demonstrated for the aquatic environment through a proposal for standardization of a short-term toxicity test with Artemia nauplii; this bioassay has but a relatively low ecological representativesess and sensitivity, but on the other hand an inherent potential for universal application as an extremely cheap reference yard-stick test