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Reproductive and developmental toxicity of the herbicide Betanal® Expert and corresponding active ingredients to Daphnia spp.

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Abstract

The commercial herbicide formulation Betanal® Expert and its active ingredients (a.i.s) ethofumesate, phenmedipham and desmedipham were focused in this study. Following questions yielding from a previous study, an in-depth analysis of the reproductive toxicity of the pesticide was made. Long-term exposures of Daphnia magna and Daphnia longispina to Betanal® Expert, to each a.i. and to a customised mixture matching the a.i.s ratio within the commercial formulation were carried out, and deleterious effects in the offspring were recorded. This intended to clarify whether (1) the tested compounds induce reproductive injury; (2) there is interspecific variation in daphnids tolerance to the compounds; (3) there is an interaction between chemicals in combined treatments; and (4) the so-called inert ingredients added to the commercial formulation contribute to the toxicity of the herbicide. Generally, developmental impair was observed in both species (egg abortion and release of undeveloped embryos or dead offspring) at concentrations of any of the a.i.s below 1 mg L−1. Ethofumesate was invariably the least toxic pesticide, and D. magna tended to be of slightly higher sensitivity to the exposures compared to D. longispina. Joint exposures indicated that the a.i.s can interact, inducing more than and less than additive effects for Betanal® Expert and the customised a.i. mixture, respectively. This indicates that inert ingredients co-formulating the commercial pesticide (which are absent from the customised a.i. mixture) actually contribute to its overall toxicity. This study constitutes an add-on to the discussion on the ecotoxicological framework required for authorisation of pesticide trade and usage. The results support the need to consider test species, long-term hazardous potential and toxicity of commercial formulations rather than solely that of active ingredients, as relevant variables in pesticide regulation.

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Acknowledgments

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) financed Tânia Vidal (SFRH/BPD/94562/2013), Joana Luísa Pereira (SFRH/BPD/101971/2014) by the means of individual research grants, as well as Nelson Abrantes via a FCT researcher contract (IF/01198/2014). This study was supported by the European funds through COMPETE and by national funds through FCT, under the scope of the project VITAQUA (PTDC/AAC-AMB/112438/2009). Thanks are also due to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017) for the financial support and to FCT through national funds and co-funding by FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. The authors are grateful to William Schmidt for the language revision of the manuscript and to an anonymous reviewer whose comments greatly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology & CESAM (Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies), University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Tânia Vidal, Joana Luísa Pereira, Amadeu M. V. M. Soares & Fernando Gonçalves

  2. Department of Environment and Planning & CESAM (Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies), University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Nelson Abrantes

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  1. Tânia Vidal
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  2. Joana Luísa Pereira
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Correspondence to Joana Luísa Pereira.

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Vidal, T., Pereira, J.L., Abrantes, N. et al. Reproductive and developmental toxicity of the herbicide Betanal® Expert and corresponding active ingredients to Daphnia spp.. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 13276–13287 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6492-9

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