Abstract

Biofuels and low viscosity oils are increasingly produced as alternatives to petroleum-based fuels and likely will be distributed using the same tanker and pipeline infrastructure. Similar to crude oils, if biofuels are released into sensitive ecosystems they might cause acute toxicity to gill breathing species due to the dissolution of a toxic water soluble fraction (WSF) into the water column or due to less water soluble constituents coating the gills and interfering with oxygen transfer and uptake. This study compared the acute toxicity (LC₅₀) of mineral oil and South Louisiana crude (SLC) oil to peanut oil, a representative of biofuels, using standard 96 hr laboratory acute toxicity tests. From these experiments, the median lethal concentration (LC₅₀) of SLC oil to juvenile red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii (Girard)) is 89 mg L^-1. The SLC oil acute toxicity was primarily attributable to the WSF. Acute toxicities of peanut oil (LC₅₀ = 622 mg L^-1) and mineral oil (LC₅₀ ~ 17,000 mg L^-1) were one and two orders-of-magnitude less than SLC oil, respectively. Acute toxicity in crayfish exposed to peanut oil and mineral oil emulsions was primarily due to oil droplets coating the gills and impairing gas exchange.

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