Artificial indoor streams as a method to investigate the impact of chemicals on lotic communities

The potential hazard of chemicals on aquatic communities are generally evaluated by standardised single-species bioassays. Safety assessment is based on results gained from organisms adapted to lentic systems and biological interactions in ecosystems are neglected. While lotic communities are often at first in contact with chemicals, it is astonishing that microcosms with lentic communities are mainly used as a bridge between laboratory bioassays and outdoor aquatic systems. Hence, we established five artificial indoor streams to simulate abiotic factors of small rivers. The closed-circuit system was filled with nutrients added to tap water. Washed pebbles were used as sediment. The dynamics of a simple biocoenoses consisting of aufwuchs, Lumbriculus variegatus Asellus aquaticus and Gammarus fossarum was investigated. The dynamic of aufwuchs and periphyton was determined as dry weight and chlorophyll-a, respectively and qualitatively by pigment pattern. The abundance of different developmental stages of L. variegatus was determined at the end of the experiment as well as the population dynamics of G. fossarum and A. aquaticus. Survival rates of gammarids and juveniles per female were investigated and data were used for modelling the population dynamics. The experiment was carried out to investigate the performance of the established artificial streams and the developed approaches to investigate effects of chemicals on a basic lotic community. The prime reason to establish this approach was to close a gap between complex artificial stream systems and laboratory single species tests to assess the impact of chemicals on the aquatic environment.