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R9 Laboratory SOP 1004
RED ABALONE (Haliotis rufescens) LARVAL DEVELOPMENT TOXICITY TEST
Summary
This method estimates the chronic toxicity of environmental samples (e.g. effluents, receiving waters) to the larvae of red abalone, Haliotis rufescens during a 48-h static non-renewal exposure.
The purpose of the test is to determine the concentrations of a test substance that reduce normal larval development relative to that attained by larvae in control solutions. Concentrations of materials adversely affecting larval development under the conditions of this test are usually acutely and chronically toxic to one or more of several common marine test species and, by extension, are presumably acutely and chronically toxic to other of the many untested marine species.
The procedure follows methods specified in Short-Term Methods for Estimating the Chronic Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving Waters to West Coast Marine and Estuarine Organisms, EPA/600/R-95/136 (USEPA, 1995). U.S. EPA Region 9 Laboratory staff perform toxicity tests on samples from NPDES facilities or Superfund sites.
This method measures the toxicity of a sample to abalone by exposing larvae to various dilutions of the sample for 48 hours. The test is terminated by the addition of a preservative and the percentage of normal larval development is determined by microscopic examination of 100 larvae in an aliquot of larvae from each treatment. The test endpoint is normal shell development of a veliger larva shown by the presence of both shell calcification and a smoothly curved larval shell with no greater than one shell indentation. Point estimates and hypothesis-derived endpoints are calculated using the TOXIS computer program to determine the samples in which normal shell development is reduced or statistically significantly different from the control. A reference toxicant test is conducted with zinc sulfate.