Towards understanding the toxicity of copper nanoparticles in aquatic ecosystems

The aim of this PhD was to identify important factors that affect toxicity of copper nanoparticles (NPs), and to explore suited evaluation strategies to better understand the risk of metallic NPs to organisms from different trophic levels. Based on this aim, the specific objectives of this PhD-thesis were: [1] To develop a framework for nanotoxicity testing to better understand the toxicity of NPs across species. [2] To apply the proposed testing framework to evaluate the toxicity of NPs, using species from different trophic levels. [3] To assess the risk of NPs by comparing the toxicity of NPs at different trophic levels. Three spherical copper NPs (CuNPs) with different diameters (25, 50 and 100 nm), one type of rod shaped CuNP (78 nm) and one type of micro copper particle (500 nm) were used in this thesis. Two types of mammalian cell lines and two types of piscine cell lines (Chapter 3), five cladoceran species (Chapter 4), three Lemnaceae species (Chapter 5) and three fish species (Chapter 6) were used to determine the toxicity of CuNPs. The species used covered different trophic levels and hence can provide systematic information for the risk assessment of CuNPs in the environment.Conservation Biolog