Research Progress and New Ideas on the Theory and Methodology of Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms

Water quality criteria (WQC) for the protection of aquatic organisms mainly focus on the maximum threshold values of the pollutants that do not have harmful effects on aquatic organisms. The WQC value is the result obtained based on scientific experiments in the laboratory and data fitting extrapolation and is the limit of the threshold value of pollutants or other harmful factors in the water environment. Until now, many studies have been carried out on WQC for the protection of aquatic organisms internationally, and several countries have also issued their own relevant technical guidelines. Thus, the WQC method for the protection of aquatic organisms has been basically formed, with species sensitivity distribution (SSD) as the main method and the assessment factor (AF) as the auxiliary method. In addition, in terms of the case studies on WQC, many scholars have conducted relevant case studies on various pollutants. At the national level, several countries have also released WQC values for typical pollutants. This study systematically discusses the general situation, theoretical methodology and research progress of WQC for the protection of aquatic organisms, and deeply analyzes the key scientific issues that need to be considered in the research of WQC. Furthermore, combined with the specific characteristics of the emerging pollutants, some new ideas and directions for future WQC research for the protection of aquatic organisms are also proposed.