Abstract: Tests on acute and subchronic toxicity toward a marine crustacean Acartia tonsa were conducted from 3 endocrine disrupting chemials farnesol, tributyltin and vinclozolin. Toxicity of tributyltin and vinclozolin to second generation of larval development were also investigated. The 48-h-LC10 and 48-h-LC50 values from acute tests with farnesol and tributyltin were 2.16 and 6.11 mg/L, and that with tributyltin were 0.39 and 2.33 μg/L, respectively. The 96-h-LC50 value from acute test with vinclozolin is 7.89 mg/L. The 5-d-EC10 and 5-d-EC50 values obtained in the subchronice toxicity tests with larval development were 113, 150 ng/L for tributyltin and 0.3, 2.7 mg/L for vinclozolin, respectively. The 3 chemicals affectedl larval development at a lower concentration than those for hatching success and larval survival. The results showed that all 3 chemical compounds displayed acute toxicity at a certain concentration. Eggs of Acartia tonsa can stand relatively higher toxicity of those chemicals. However, once hatched, the development of larval is more sensitive to those chemicals than larval survival, suggesting that Acartia tonsa can survive with the exposure of the chemicals, but their growth was serverely inhibited by the tested chemicals. The second generation of larval development tests are conducted with tributyltin and vinclozolin with eggs from the treated adult Acartia tonsa by exposed to tributyltin and vinclozlolin through the entire lifetime. The results suggest that the second generation of Acartia tonsa is no more vulnerable to tributyltin than the first generation, i.e., the second generation of Acartia tonsa is less sensitive to vinclozolin than the first generation.

Key words: acute toxicity, farnesol, second generation toxicity, subchronic toxicity, tributyltin, vinclozolin