Toxicity to residual chlorine: Comparison of sensitivity of native Arabian Gulf species and non-native species

Abstract

Chlorine is extensively used as a powerful oxidizing agent in the countries surrounding the Arabian Gulf for water treatment and biofouling control. Its usage has been increasing significantly as demand for water grows considerably both in industry and for domestic use. This is due to the fact that it is a well-tested technology, has had a history of long-term worldwide industrial use and is of acceptable cost. While the Arabian Gulf waters support a range of coastal and pelagic marine habitats including mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs, marine organisms in these waters are living close to their tolerance limits due to the extreme environmental stressors like temperature and salinity. Anthropogenic stressors such as chlorine may further exacerbate these natural stressors. In seawater, chlorine produces a mixture of hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion. These rapidly react with the bromide ion to form a mixture of hypobromous and hypobromite ion. Total residual oxidants formed by chlorination although are short lived and not persistent in seawater, they can be quite toxic. In the present study, toxicity data were obtained from 7 acute toxicity tests and 3 chronic toxicity tests using Arabian Gulf aquatic species from different trophic levels. The study also examined the effect of temperature and developmental stages on toxicity of chlorine. Furthermore, differences in the species sensitivity distribution between native and non-native species were compared. The main finding of the study showed that there was no significant difference between native and non-native species for chlorine toxicity. This would suggest that toxicity data from different geographic region can be used in deriving site- specific ecological risk assessment of chlorine. Keywords: Chlorine; Arabian Gulf; acute toxicity; chronic toxicity; risk assessment; species sensitivity distribution;