Zinc Toxicity to Daphnia magna in Two-Species Microcosms with Phosphorus and pH Effects

Raw data and a model script accompany a journal article testing if single-species data can predict toxicity in ecological systems. The dataset includes results from two factorial microcosm experiments measuring the effects of zinc, phosphorus supply, and pH on Daphnia magna and algal populations. The model, calibrated on single-species data, predicted zinc toxicity within a factor of two for the observed EC50 values.

Use Cases

• Validate population models predicting metal toxicity based on single-species test data.
• Analyze the interaction between nutritional stress (phosphorus limitation) and zinc toxicity on Daphnia magna population size.
• Study the indirect effects of toxicants via producer-consumer relationships in a controlled microcosm setting.
• Investigate how pH influences zinc sensitivity in phytoplankton and its cascading effect on consumer populations.

Strengths

• Includes raw experimental data from two separate factorial microcosm experiments.
• Provides a complete MATLAB model script with equations as described in the published paper.
• Data shows a 12-fold variation in zinc EC50 for Daphnia magna, from 25 to 310 µg Zn L-1.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Journal article published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (ET&C) by Andreas Fettweis.

Collection Method

Data collected from controlled laboratory microcosm experiments.