No-observed-effect concentrations in batch and continous algal toxicity tests

In this study, we compare the no-observed-effect concentrations (NOECs) based on different response parameters, using batch and continuous algal toxicity tests. For both batch and continuous tests, parameters based on total cell volume (TCV) were found to be less sensitive than those related to cell densities. The above observation mainly occurred because, under the stresses from metal toxicants evaluated in this and a previous study, the mean cell volume (MCV) of algae increased considerably. The increase of MCV compensates for the effects brought about by the reduction in cell density and eventually results in less variation in TCVs. This study shows that parameters based on cell density are quite sensitive and ideal for the estimation of NOECs. In addition, comparison of the NOEC values derived from different culture techniques shows that the continuous method generally yields lower NOEC values than that obtained by the batch tests. The results of this study also indicate that the NOEC provides more protection to the test organism than the effective concentration at 10% growth reduction (EC10). For toxicity test methods that produce small variations among replicates, the NOEC is still a good indicator of low toxic effect. Furthermore, for the continuous algal toxicity test, a relatively simple approach is proposed to determine the NOEC values based on the algal culture's control charts. The proposed method produced identical results as those based on conventional hypothesis-testing methods.