Wildlife and Domestic Animal Issues

Adrian M. H. deBruyn and Peter M. Chapman, Selenium Toxicity to Invertebrates: Will Proposed Thresholds for Toxicity to Fish and Birds Also Protect Their Prey? Environmental Science & Technology, volume 41 (2007), pages 1766-1770.

Efforts to manage the environmental risks of selenium (Se) in freshwater ecosystems have focused primarily on fish and birds, with invertebrates most often considered only as dietary sources of Se to higher trophic levels. Relatively little attention has been given to the risk of Se toxicity to invertebrates. Based on a review of 156 aqueous, dietary, or internal Se concentrations associated with toxic effects in 29 macroinvertebrate species, we found that water concentrations associated with acute lethality varied >1000-fold among taxa, whereas toxic dietary concentrations varied ~100-fold and toxic internal concentrations varied about 30-fold. Sublethal effects occurred at ~10-fold lower concentrations than lethality. Sublethal effects occurred at 1-30 g Se/g dry weight in invertebrate tissue, a range that encompasses proposed dietary thresholds for toxicity to fish and water birds, suggesting that Se may cause toxic effects in some invertebrate species at concentrations considered to be "safe" for the organisms consuming them.

The journal is available at libraries and the article may be purchased on-line at: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2007/41/i05/abs/es062253j.html