Author Institution: Department of Biology, The University of AkronThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of four diets on the results of seven-day Ceriodaphnia dubia toxicity tests. Survival and reproduction were used as indices to detect the sensitivity of this species to acute and chronic copper stress. All toxicity tests were conducted using the moderately hard reconstituted water recommended in 1989 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Diet differentially affected the acute and chronic toxicity of copper. Daphnids fed Selenastrum capricomutum (alga) showed the greatest sensitivity, followed by those fed the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardti, then by animals fed a Yeast-CerophyllT1^-Trout Food (YCTF) mixture plus Selenastrum, and finally by animals fed YCTF alone. These differences may result from the poor nutritional adequacy of Selenastrum when fed alone, the different caloric contents of the diets, the increased toxicant uptake by the organisms through ingestion of copperladen algal cells, and/or copper ions sequestered by fats and insoluble substances in YCTF. We recognize that diet is an important variable in seven-day toxicity tests, and that the selection of a diet should not be based only on its effects on long-term culturing of C. dubia, but also on its possible effects on test results
