Improving the design and conduct of aquatic toxicity studies with oils based on 20 years of CROSERF experience

The goals of the manuscript were to:•build upon 20+ years of experience to update the existing CROSERF guidance for conducting aquatic toxicity tests with petroleum and petroleum-derived products and•to improve the experimental design of laboratory ecotoxicity studies for use in hazard evaluation and development of quantitative effects models that can then be applied in spill assessment. Key issues discussed and considerations for experimental designs include:○species selection (standard vs field collected),○test chemical (single compound vs whole oil),○exposure regime (static vs flow-through),○exposure metrics,○toxicity endpoints, and○quality assurance and control.•Several research needs were identified including:○The need for additional single species acute and chronic toxicity data developed by today's scientific standards,○The need for time-course data to inform mode-of-action concerns○Additional information regarding the composition and toxicity of spill response agents○Improved characterization of bioassay conditions and exposure solutions to be useful for toxicity modeling and impact assessment.