Acute and subacute toxicity of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 1-methylnaphthalene to the shallow-water coral Porites divaricata: Application of a novel exposure protocol

• DOI: 10.1002/etc.3530
• Publication Date: 2016-06-17T10:57:27Z
• Authors: D. Abigail Renegar; Nicholas R. Turner; Bernhard M. Riegl; Richard E. Dodge; Anthony H. Knap; Paul A. Schuler
• Keywords: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; Porites

Previous research evaluating hydrocarbon toxicity to corals and coral reefs has generally focused on community-level effects, results often are not comparable between studies because of variability in exposure characterization evaluation health mortality during exposure. Toxicity the polycyclic aromatic 1-methylnaphthalene Porites divaricata was assessed a constant test utilizing novel testing protocol uniquely applicable shallow-water corals, which considered multiple assessment metrics evaluated potential for post-exposure and/or recovery. Acute subacute effects (gross morphological changes, photosynthetic efficiency, mortality, histologic cellular changes) were pre-exposure (4 wk), (48 h), recovery wk) periods. Coral condition scores used determine 48-h median effective concentration 7442 μg/L. Significant physical histological changes resulted from 640 μg/L 5427 1-methylnaphthalene, with 1-d 3-d delay efficiency (ΔF/Fm). Pigmented granular amoebocyte area found be potentially useful sublethal endpoint this species. estimate lethal 12 123 Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:212-219. © 2016 SETAC.