Studies conducted by Mc William and Baird (2002a, 2002b)
demonstrated that in situ post-exposure feeding depression in
Daphnia magna was a sensitive, robust and ecologically relevant
endpoint to diagnose sublethal effects of toxic effluents rich in
metals and agrochemicals. Recently, combining biomarker and toxicological
responses into the post-exposure feeding D. magna in situ
bioassay, Barata et al. (2007) were able to identify exposure to and
effects associated with specific pesticides in the field. The main
objective of this studywas to address if the use of toxicological and
biochemical responses in D. magna in situ bioassays may complement
existing ecological water quality monitoring procedures in
identifying causal agents affecting aquatic biota inhabiting rivers
contaminated by multiple environmental factors. In particular, we
assessed and compared toxicological and biochemical responses of
caged D. magna with biological indices calculated from taxa