Application and Validation of a Biotic Ligand Model for Calculating Acute Toxicity of Lead to Moina Dubia in Lakes of Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract It is increasingly being recognized that biotic ligand models (BLMs) are valuable in the risk assessment of metals in aquatic systems. The authors investigated the effect of pH, Ca, Mg, K, Na on the acute toxicity of Pb to Moina dubia, native zooplankton in lakes of Hanoi, Vietnam. Calcium, Magnesium and pH strongly influenced acute Pb toxicity to Moina dubia. Based on this data set, a acute Pb-BLM for Moina dubia was developed according to condition of Hanoi lakes. The developed BLM was shown, in an independent validation with data on acute toxicity test on natural water sets, to be capable of predicting chronic Pb toxicity with 81.3% accuracy. The results proved that BLM can be useful tool for calculating the acute toxicity based on water-quality criteria in lake of Hanoi.