Proposing a pH stabilised nutrient medium for algal growth bioassays

Ecotoxicological assessment of chemicals and contaminated sites relies on bioassays using apical endpoints such as detection of growth inhibition using suspension cultures of green algae. For valid effect assessment observable responses should be causally linked to chemical exposure and thus confounding factors should be minimised. In this study we report that concentration response relationships for substances in current standardised protocols for unicellular algal growth assays are prone to variation from ill-defined assay conditions. The currently used growth media are not optimised to provide a stable pH regime for an exposure period of 72 h, resulting in undefined speciation for charged or ionising molecules. We therefore propose a modified pH-stabilised growth medium for algal bioassays and demonstrate that this can substantially reduce variation in effect determination for reference compounds.