Toxicity assessment of perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) towards the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus

• The acute toxicity and chronic toxicity of PFCAs towards rotifers are investigated.
• Morphological effects of PFCAs towards rotifers are observed.
• The 24-h LC50 values of PFCAs (C2–C6) range from 70 to 140 mg L− 1.
• PFCA treatments can decrease the rate of population increase.
• PFCA treatments can enlarge the mictic ratio, body size and egg size.

The effects of acute toxicity, 3-day population growth and morphological effects of perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) with carbon chain lengths of 2–6 on the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus were investigated. The results indicated that the 24-h median lethal concentration (LC50) values of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), perfluoropropionic acid (PFPrA), perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluopentanoic acid (PFPeA), and perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) towards B. calyciflorus were 70, 80, 110, 130 and 140 mg L− 1, respectively. The acute effects of PFCAs decreased with the increase of carbon chain length. The parameters used to determine 3-day population growth on these compounds were the rate of population increase (r) and mictic ratio. With the increase of fluorinated carbon-chain length, the r values of TFA, PFPrA, PFBA, PFPeA and PFHxA decreased by 0.99%, 16.8%, 16.5%, 22.4% and 32.0%, respectively. Mictic ratios ranged from 0.707 to 0.953 for PFCAs with carbon chain lengths of 2–6. In addition, the mictic ratio, body size and egg size exposed to some PFCAs were higher than those of the controls. These results offer a useful method for the ecological risk assessment of these short chain PFCAs.