Chlordane: effects on several estuarine organisms

Abstract

Dynamic marine toxicity tests were performed with technical grade chlordan and eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica), pink shrimp (Penaeus duorarum), grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio), sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus), and pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides). The 96-hr LC20S (and 95% confidence limits) based on measured concentrations of chlordane (in mug/liter) are: ping shrimp 0.4 (0.3-0.6); grass shrimp, 4.8 (4.0-6.0); sheepshead minnows, 24.5 (19.9-28.6); and pinfish, 6.4 (5.0-7.3). The 96-hr EC50 for eastern oysters was 6.2 (4.8-7.9). In a flow-through test, embryos and fry of sheepshead minnows were exposed to average measured concentrations of chlordane from 1.3 to 36.0 mug/liter for 28 days. Neither fertilization success nor embryo survival was affected by the concentrations of chlordane to which these life stages were exposed. However, sheepshead minnow fry did not survive for more than 10 days in chlordane concentrations greater than 7.1 mug/liter.