Attributes regarding the effects of copper exposure on larval white sturgeon swimming and feeding behaviors and time to response.

This dataset characterizes the acute toxicity of copper and zinc to white sturgeon (~30 days post hatch) and cladocerans (less thab 24 hours old) in waters with varying dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by conducting 96-hour white sturgeon and 48-hour cladoceran copper and zinc exposures in test waters with natural DOC (from pond water) at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 5.5 mg/L.

Research support for various organizations in NOAA (Northwest Regional Office (NWR), HQ Office of Protected Resources, National Ocean Service (NOS) Coastal Services Center) for copper related to the harmful impacts of urban stormwater runoff, pesticide use, antifoulant use, and mining (e.g., proposed hardrock mining in Alaska). This has been a core focus of Ecotoxicology research for years, and may redirect to address key and high-profile data gaps specific to salmon habitat threats in Alaska. Analyses of water samples for water chemistry (e.g., pH) and metals.

A manipulative field experiment was used to assess the spatial variation in the effect of copper on sessile invertebrates within a marina in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. Sessile invertebrate assemblages were grown on perspex plates for 6 weeks and then dosed with plaster blocks impregnated with copper sulfate. After 1 week of exposure to the copper the plates were collected and the numbers of sponges, polychaetes, barnacles, bryozoans and ascidians were counted on each plate. The variation in abundances of individual taxa were estimated at spatial scales of metres. Water flow was measured as a possible explanation for the variation in the effects of copper. Three of the 20 sessile invertebrates species showed significant small scale variation in the effect of copper. The effects of copper on these species varied in magnitude and direction. Water flow did not explain the variation in the effects of copper. It is suggested that variations in organic or inorganic compounds or in pH levels may provide alternative explanations for the spatially variable effects of copper in the marina.

Smelter slag, containing copper and other trace elements, is widespread in riverbed sediments in the Upper Columbia River near Kettle Falls, WA. To evaluate the potential risk to aquatic life, concentrations of copper and other trace elements were measured in the shallow pore and surface water collected near the sediment-water interface. An in situ pore-water profiler was used to collect a suite of four water samples from above, at, and below the sediment-water interface at each of 11 sampling locations. Samples were collected between July 19-21, 2017. The analysis of water samples included specific conductance, pH, alkalinity, dissolved organic carbon, and a suite of major anions, cations, and trace elements.

Research support for various organizations in NOAA (Northwest Regional Office (NWR), HQ Office of Protected Resources, National Ocean Service (NOS) Coastal Services Center) for copper related to the harmful impacts of urban stormwater runoff, pesticide use, antifoulant use, and mining (e.g., proposed hardrock mining in Alaska). This has been a core focus of Ecotoxicology research for years, and may redirect to address key and high-profile data gaps specific to salmon habitat threats in Alaska. Electrophysiological recordings from the olfactory system of salmonids.

This thesis has used a field based approach to assess the effects of copper liberated from antifouling paints on sessile epifaunal (or fouling) assemblages in southeastern Australia. In the field the effects of dosed copper may be influenced by site conditions, or because the organism has developed tolerance to exposure. To explore these possible effects experiments were conducted inside and outside of two enclosed marinas. Marinas were located at St Kilda (Port Phillip Bay) and Hastings (Western Port Bay), Victoria. At St Kilda, sites were located inside the St Kilda Marina and at St Kilda Pier. At Hastings, sites were located inside Westernport Marina and at Hastings Jetty. Additional sites were also sampled occasionally over the study period. Studies were carried out between 1997-1999. A novel copper dosing system was developed for use in the field. Studies comparing epifaunal assemblages inside and outside the two marinas found that marinas produced different assemblages. The marinas exerted common effects on some functional groups, but effects at the species level differed at each marina. The effects of dosed copper inside and outside the two marinas were tested on: i) the early recruitment of assemblages, and ii) the growth rate and competitive ability of colonial fouling organisms. Results were characterised by high spatial and temporal variability. Copper dose affected a number of species recruiting to the plates but was rarely found to significantly alter growth rates of the colonial organisms; this may be attributed to the high variability observed in growth rates. The competitive ability of colonies was not found to be affected by copper dose or marinas, but few experiments examined this aspect. Reciprocal transplants of settlement plates between sites and copper doses showed that the effect of marinas on assemblages was more important than dosed copper, even though dose levels were well above background concentrations. This is probably due to a large number of factors associated with marinas over and above the effects of increased background heavy metal pollution. Several taxa appeared to adapt to local conditions or copper dose and some appeared to show heterogeneity in response to copper dosing or an ability to acclimate to dose. These types of findings have important implications for the manner in which we apply the findings of traditional laboratory-based ecotoxicology experiments to environmental management.

Data are biological and chemical in nature. They describe organismal responses to copper treatments. The abstract can be found below. Copper can be toxic to aquatic organisms at high concentrations and has been previously used successfully to control zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). Because copper’s toxicity changes with water chemistry, using the same copper concentration in different waterbodies could yield different outcomes. We demonstrate how measuring water chemistry parameters and using the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM) and multiple linear regression (MLR) models can predict a suitable, site-specific copper concentration for management. We exposed zebra mussel adults and non-target organisms to varying concentrations of copper over 10 d in a mobile laboratory. We found that one non-target species, Daphnia magna, had a 50% chance of survival at 9.50 µg Cu/L (i.e., the 50% lethal concentration, LC50), within our BLM-predicted range of 3.38–16.95 µg Cu/L LC50 values. In the future, managers could make similar predictions and tailor their copper concentrations to their management goals. We also measured zebra mussel larvae mortality at copper concentrations ranging from 0 to 191 µg Cu/L. While those results were inconclusive, we present the results of this work as a foundation for future projects. Our study underscores the importance of developing site-specific copper concentration recommendations and demonstrates the potential utility of the BLM and MLR approaches for informing those recommendations. Citation information for this dataset can be found in Data.gov's References section.