Intercalibration of Daphnia magna and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata assays in Mexico: potential tools for environmental monitoring

Abstract

In Mexico, as in other developing countries, the knowledge about pollution status and its effects in local ecosystems has been developed following specific research goals that make use of different methodologies. Since there are information gaps in this topic, it is important to promote the broad use of standardized ecotoxicity protocols as regulatory tools to establish comprehensive environmental protection measures. From this perspective, the goal of this study was to demonstrate, through intercalibration exercises, with previous capacity homologation workshops, the potential of Daphnia magna and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (known before as Selenastrum capricornutum) protocols, to generate analytically reliable results in laboratories with little experience in this field. This will allow the promotion of bio-analytical tools in Mexico for environmental monitoring, which will favor the integral evaluation of pollution in water bodies. The results of the laboratories internal calibration exercises demonstrated that in a short term it is possible to achieve an acceptable analytical repeatability and an adequate performance of the protocols, which sustains the idea that these protocols are good environmental monitoring tools, even in countries where today there are very few qualified human resources and laboratories fit for this purpose.