Ability of Standard Toxicity Tests to Predict the Effects of the Insecticide Diflubenzuron on Laboratory Stream Communities

Abstract

We assessed the ability of a standard set of freshwater single-species toxicity tests to predict accurately effects of the insecticide diflubenzuron (1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(2,6-difluorobenzoyl)urea) on complex laboratory stream communities. The single-species tests complied with requirements prescribed for establishing freshwater quality criteria and included nine freshwater animal acute tests, five freshwater animal chronic tests, and one freshwater algal test. The stream communities were stocked from a natural source, equilibrated for 3 mo and then treated with diflubenzuron for 5 mo. Effects on these stream communities were assessed at the functional group level using biomass and diversity for the analysis. The single-species tests adequately predicted the concentrations of diflubenzuron which affected these stream communities; the most-sensitive test species, insects and crustaceans, were up to an order of magnitude more sensitive than the observed community effects. The single-species tests were less successful in predicting the exact nature of the community level effects. Those effects resulting from direct lethality to component species were clearly predicted; indirect effects due to altered interspecies interactions could only be predicted with an a priori knowledge of the system's trophic dynamics.Key words: toxicity, diflubenzuron, streams, community effects, toxicity testing