Proposal for a short-term toxicity test with Artemia nauplii

Although standardization of toxicity tests on aquatic organisms is an urgent necessity, very little has yet been achieved for the marine environment. As a first step in this direction, a simple, inexpensive and reliable short-term routine test with Artemia larvae is proposed. This test is the result of an extensive study in our laboratory, taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of Artemia bioassays published by various authors. The major advantage of the brine shrimp as a test species is its continuous availability under the form of dry cysts which can be hatched very easily; this eliminates all biological, technological, and financial problems of stock recruitment and/or culturing. The acute test presented is based on the determination of the LC 50-24 hr of instar II–III nauplii of a specific Artemia strain. Presently this test is the subject of an intercalibration exercise in North America; an analogous exercise is now in progress in the European Economic Community countries.