Acute Copper Toxicity Displays a Nonmonotonic Relationship with Age Across the Medaka (Oryzias latipes) Life Span

The ability of an organism to cope with environmental stressors varies across the life span because of developmental stage–specific responses and age‐related functional declines. In the present study, we examined the effect of age on acute copper toxicity in Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes). We first determined the median lethal concentration (LC50) at 96 h for embryos, 7‐day‐old fry, and 6‐month‐old medaka. Embryos were exposed to 0, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250, and 500 ppb CuSO(4) through hatching. Fry were exposed to 0, 20, 50, 75, 100, 150, 250, and 500 ppb CuSO(4) for 96 h. Adult fish were exposed to 0, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 ppb CuSO(4) for 96 h. The 96‐h LC50 was 804 ppb for embryos, 262 ppb for embryonically exposed larvae, 60.3 ppb for 7‐day‐old fry, and 226 ppb for adults. We then challenged cohorts of fish aged 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16 months with a 225‐ppb CuSO(4) exposure to determine the acute toxicity across the life span. The fish exhibited a bimodal tolerance to copper, with tolerance peaking in 2‐ and 3‐month‐old fish and again at 10 and 11 months of age. Our data demonstrate that copper sensitivity is dynamic throughout the medaka life span and may be influenced by trade‐offs with reproduction. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:2999–3006. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.