Abstract
Application of monosulfuron, a new sulfonylurea herbicide, produced a simulative effect on heterocyst formation and nitrogenase activity but an inhibitory effect on photosynthesis, i.e., a lower net photosynthetic rate, fewer photosynthetic pigments, and a smaller Fv/Fm ratio at increasingly higher monosulfuron concentrations (0.001–10 mg/l) for three nonspecific filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria: Anabaena azollae, A. flos-aquae, and A. azotica. The decrease in biliprotein of algal cells was less than that of carotenoid and chlorophyll-a. Monosulfuron was more readily degraded and less accumulated in A. azotica compared with A. azollae and A. flos-aquae. The three algae exhibited varying degrees of sensitivity to monosulfuron: Calculated 50% inhibition concentrations (IC50s) of algal growth and no observed-effect concentration (NOEC) values after 4 days of treatment were 0.014 and 0.005, 0.029 and 0.019, and 0.22 and 0.075 mg/l for A. flos-aquae, A. azollae, and A. azotica, respectively. Normal agricultural use of monosulfuron at postemergence rates of 0.3–0.8 mg/l in rice fields will likely be toxic to these three ubiquitous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. Low-dose monosulfuron application (<0.1 mg/l) enables growth of the more tolerant A. azotica as biofertilizer, and the use of photosynthetic efficiency and growth rates as sensitive-indicator indexes of toxicity to nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria are recommended.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this work was provided by the Medi-Agriculture Research Foundation (Grant No. YG2009MS24) and Nation Public Science Foundation (Grant No. 200903056). We also thank Weichi Ying of the Research Institute of Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, for gracious advice and all the graduate students and technical support personnel, especially Zhengpei Zhong who worked on this project.
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Shen, J., Luo, W. Effects of Monosulfuron on Growth, Photosynthesis, and Nitrogenase Activity of Three Nitrogen-Fixing Cyanobacteria. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 60, 34–43 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-010-9534-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-010-9534-1