A Review of the Natural History and Laboratory Culture Methods for the Yellow Dung Fly, Scathophaga stercoraria

The yellow dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria (L.) (Diptera: Scathophagidae) is a widespread and locally abundant fly associated with the dung of large mammals, especially farm animals. This species has recently become a standard test organism for evaluating toxic effects of veterinary pharmaceuticals in livestock dung. In this context, a review of its natural history and a general description of the field and laboratory rearing methods of this species are provided here to benefit the scientific community as well as government regulators and applicants of eco-toxicological studies. For guidance, means and ranges are included for all relevant standard life history traits stemming from previously published data on Swiss populations

Homogeneous Gold Catalysis through Relativistic Effects: Addition of Water to Propyne

In the catalytic addition of water to propyne the Au(III) catalyst is not stable under non-relativistic conditions and dissociates into a Au(I) compound and Cl2. This implies that one link in the chain of events in the catalytic cycle is broken and relativity may well be seen as the reason why Au(III) compounds are effective catalysts.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Workshop on Bioaccumulation: sediment test using benthic oligochaetes

The presented report gives a description of the results of the international workshop 'Bioaccumulation: Sediment test using benthic oligochaetes', held at Hochheim/Main, Germany, on April 26-27 1999. Scientists and experts from industry, academia and governmental agencies in the field of assessment of bioaccumulative, sediment-associated contaminants came together for a workshop held in Hochheim/Main, Germany, on April 26/27, to discuss the guideline proposal: Egeler Ph., Knacker Th., Roembke J., Schallnass H.-J., Meller M., Studinger G., Franke C. and Nagel, R. (1997). Bioaccumulation: Sediment test using benthic oligochaetes. Proposal for a draft guideline according to OECD format. 2nd, revised version. German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) Berlin. Submitted to OECD, Paris, for revision. This draft guideline was based on the results of a research and development project on a standardisable method for the determination of bioaccumulation in sediment dwelling organisms (UBA-F+E 106 03 106/03; UBA Text 2/99) and conducted at ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH, Floersheim/Main, Germany. The objective of the workshop was to review and refine methodological and scientific aspects of the proposed draft guideline. Questions concerning choice of test species, sediment ageing, duration of the test, and application of the test guideline were discussed. Furthermore, the organisation of an international ring test as well as further steps for the draft test guideline to be implemented in international guideline programs were considered. The proposed method was accepted in general. Recommendations regarding scope and application of the test, test species, and on details of test performance were given and will be included in the revised draft guideline document, which is presented in this report. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RN 8908(99-125) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEUmweltbundesamt, Berlin (Germany)DEGerman

Entwicklung eines chronischen Pflanzentests Abschlussbericht

The study describes experiments for the development and tentative application of a chronic toxicity test with higher plants. This test procedure shall form part of an ecotoxicological test battery for the assessment of the quality of contaminated or remediated soils. In comparison to acute plant tests, commonly used in the assessment of chemicals, the chronic plant test includes endpoints relevant for the reproduction of the plants. Also, it was taken into consideration that the test meets the requirements for testing different types of soil. The new test procedure was not fully validated within this research project. Nevertheless, the results were used to draft a test guideline, which has been presented to ISO. The applicability of the chronic plant test was tried out by experiments with soils from different locations contaminated with either, TNT, polyaromatic hydrocarbons or mineral oil hydrocarbons, with biologically remediated soils as well as with one standard and one artificial soil to which the model contaminants TNT or Pyren were added. These tests were designed as dose-response experiments, to evaluate adverse effects on the test plants on the basis of the model contaminant concentration or the mixture ratio of the test soil. In addition, experimental factors like illumination, watering, nutrient amendments, sowing method or pollination were caried to assess their effects on the practicability of the test and the test results. A few uncontaminated reference soils with similar properties to a given test soil, were included in the study as controls and substrate for preparing soil mixtures. In other cases LUFA Sp2.2, a German standard soil, or OECD artificial soil were used for this purpose. The results show, that lack of true control substrates has to be considered when interpreting the dose-(mixture-)response curves. The use of reference soils as a control and substrate for soil mixtures proved to be more problematic than standard or artificial soil with well-known properties. Toxic effects cannot be masked by high levels of nutrients. However, mild adverse effects may be less clearly distinctive when nutrient levels of a test soil are much higher than of the control substrate. Beside nutrients, the water transport capacity of the test soils was of major concern for the practicability of the test. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F00B1185 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Cryptic Species in Ecotoxicology

The advent of genetic methods has led to the discovery of an increasing number of species that previously could not be distinguished from each other on the basis of morphological characteristics. Even though there has been an exponential growth of publications on cryptic species, such species are rarely considered in ecotoxicology. Thus, the particular question of ecological differentiation and the sensitivity of closely related cryptic species is rarely addressed. Tackling this question, however, is of key importance for evolutionary ecology, conservation biology, and, in particular, regulatory ecotoxicology. At the same time, the use of species with (known or unknown) cryptic diversity might be a reason for the lack of reproducibility of ecotoxicological experiments and implies a false extrapolation of the findings. Our critical review includes a database and literature search through which we investigated how many of the species most frequently used in ecotoxicological assessments show evidence of cryptic diversity. We found a high proportion of reports indicating overlooked species diversity, especially in invertebrates. In terrestrial and aquatic realms, at least 67% and 54% of commonly used species, respectively, were identified as cryptic species complexes. The issue is less prominent in vertebrates, in which we found evidence for cryptic species complexes in 27% of aquatic and 6.7% of terrestrial vertebrates. We further exemplified why different evolutionary histories may significantly determine cryptic species' ecology and sensitivity to pollutants. This in turn may have a major impact on the results of ecotoxicological tests and, consequently, the outcome of environmental risk assessments. Finally, we provide a brief guideline on how to deal practically with cryptic diversity in ecotoxicological studies in general and its implementation in risk assessment procedures in particular. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;00:1-26. & COPY; 2023 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC

Organisation and performance of an international ringtest for the validation of the Enchytraeid reproduction test. Vol. 1 and 2. Organisation und Durchfuehrung eines internationalen Ringtests zur Validierung des Enchytraeen Reproduktionstests. Vol. 1 und 2

The aim of the project was the organisation and performance of an international Ringtest for the Enchytraeid Reproduction Test (ERT) which was developed on behalf of the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) several years ago. An existing Draft Guideline presented during a workshop in Bad Soden (Germany) in 1995 was used to run the test. A total of 29 institutions (governmental agencies, universities, contract laboratories, and industry) from 15 different countries participated in the Ringtest. Most participants performed four test. Two of these tests were conducted with the fungicide Carbendazim (Formulation Derosal) and two with 4-Nitrophenol. For each chemical one test was designed according to an ECx approach and the other according to a NOEC approach. Several courses and workshops were organised to inform and train the participants. Six Ringtest newsletters (RTL) were prepared and distributed to all participants during the project. A task force consisting of 6 members supported the organisation of the Ringtest. A major aspect of the project was the detailed statistical evaluation of the test results. Additionally, these results are thought to be an important contribution to the recent discussion on ecotoxicological test design. As a result of the Ringtest, the ERT Draft Guideline, which losely follows formal requirements of the OECD test guidelines programme, was significantly improved. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RN 8422(1999,4) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Arbeiten zur Uebertragbarkeit und Praezisierung der Wirkungsmechanismen chemischer Belastung in verschiedenen Oekosystemen. Teilprojekt 2: Zoologische und mikrobiologische Parameter zum Streuabbau Abschlussbericht

Available from TIB Hannover: F95B83+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Umweltprobleme durch Arzneimitteln. Literaturstudie

The subject of the study was to examine whether the ecotoxicological hazard potential of pharmaceuticals or their metaboloties should be assessed. In a first step, publications on environmental problems known to be related to pharmaceuticlas were reviewed and evaluated. The data were discussed with concerned interest groups. In a second step, the data required by the 'Arzneimittelgesetz (AMG)' as part of the registration process were assessed under the aspect of suitability for ecotoxicological risk assessment. Additionally, it was evaluated which laboratory tests should be required to perform ecotoxicological risk assessments with pharmaceuticals. Preliminary risk assessments were conducted for different pharmaceutical groups if sufficient data were available. Taking into consideration the legal requirements for chemical notification within the EU, the necessity of further development of the AMG concerning ecotoxicological aspects was emphasized. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RN 8422(1996,60) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman