Application of the biotic ligand model to predict copper acute toxicity to Medaka fish in typical Chinese rivers

LA50, the Lethal Accumulation of Cu on the Medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) gills that results in 50% mortality during a toxicological exposure (96 hours) in synthetic water was assessed by use of the biotic ligand model (BLM). The LA50 was employed to predict the 96 h Cu toxicity (LC50) to this fish in different natural surface waters in China. The LC50 values were predicted with errors of no more than 1.55 for the river water except for two water samples, one of which was from a tidal river and the other of which was from a river that was subject to joint metal pollution and possibly affected by other pollutants.