Toxicity prediction of binary combinations of cadmium, carbendazim and low dissolved oxygen on Daphnia magna

Environmental contamination is often characterised by a combination of stress factors of various sources (biological, physical and chemical). The predictability of their joint effects is an important stage in environmental risk assessment procedures. In this study, the two main conceptual models for mixture evaluation based on the effect of individual compounds, concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) and deviations to synergism/antagonism, “dose ratio” and “dose level” dependency were used. The single and combined effects of cadmium, carbendazim and low dissolved oxygen levels were assayed for life-cycle parameters (survival and feeding) of the water flea Daphnia magna Straus. The results of single exposures revealed an increase of acute and chronic toxicity as concentrations of cadmium and carbendazim increases. At low dissolved oxygen levels both survival and feeding parameters were significantly affected (P ≤ 0.05). In the acute mixture exposure of cadmium and carbendazim a “dose ratio” dependency was observed with a higher toxicity when cadmium was dominant whereas at high concentrations of carbendazim a lower effect on survival was observed. At chronic exposures an antagonistic deviation from IA model was observed for this mixture. The IA model showed to be adequate for toxicity prediction on acute exposure combinations with low DO levels where a synergistic behaviour was observed. However, at sublethal exposures IA and CA models failed by underestimation. Validation from toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic modelling studies should be made in the future as a way to understand toxicological pathways involved in complex mixture/combination exposures.