Tolerance to Ammonia of Thulinius ruffoi (Bertolani, 1981), a Tardigrade Isolated from a Sewage Treatment Plant

The acute toxicity of ammonia on Thulinius ruffoi (Bertolani, 1981), a eutardigrade isolated from a small waste water treatment plant (WWTP) in Poland, was estimated. Our results show that no active individuals survived a 24 h exposure to solutions equal to or higher than 125 mg/L of total ammonia nitrogen (NH(3)–N + NH(4)(+)–N), which, under the conditions in our experiment, was equivalent to 1.17 mg/L of un-ionised ammonia (NH(3)). The LC(50) concentration of total ammonia nitrogen was equal to 52 mg/L (or 0.65 mg/L un-ionised ammonia). Given that the norms for the concentration of ammonia in treated waters leaving WWTPs are usually several times lower than the LC(50) for T. ruffoi, this species does not seem to be a good bioindicator candidate for WWTPs. In this paper we also note that various ecotoxicological studies use different methodological approaches and we suggest that a more uniform methodology may aid interspecific comparisons of LC(50) values.