Role of environmental factors on the reproducibility of Lemna test

Abstract

Lemna minor is a species easy to collect and culture in laboratory, and can give rapid test results. However, in order to standardise toxicity tests using Lemna minor as test organism, it is important to find out what natural variability different populations might have. Five Lemna populations were used for comparison. It contained two standard cultures and three populations collected in natural habitats. Potassium dichromate was applied as test material. Lemna populations cultured under the same conditions showed different TD and LC50 values. There is an inverse relation between the sensitivity and TD of the strains. It is supposed that growth rate and sensitivity of Lemna populations depend on environmental factors characterising the habitat in which the given population originally lives.