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Assessment of cytotoxicity and AhR-mediated toxicity of sediments from water level fluctuation zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir, China

  • Sediments, Sec 4 • Sediment-Ecology Interactions • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The Three Gorges Dam project is one of the biggest projects in the world. The water level fluctuation zone (WLFZ) was created with impoundment. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the ecotoxicological potential of the sediment extracts from the WLFZ and propose future WLFZ monitoring for early detection of environmental changes brought about by pollution.

Materials and methods

The investigation was performed by using cell-based in vitro bioassays to determine acute cytotoxicity (neutral red retention assay) and mechanism-specific aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-mediated activity (7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) induction assay) of sediment extracts with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) liver cells (RTL-W1).

Results and discussion

Results showed that the cytotoxicity and AhR-mediated toxicity potential of the sediment extracts from the WLFZ in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) were moderate of level compared with the ecotoxicity of sediments from other river systems. However, according to a sediment classification system in Germany, sediments from some individual sites in the WLFZ showed strong toxicity. Compared to the results from the Yangtze River in our previous study, more attention should be paid to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor inducers in the WLFZ in TGR.

Conclusions

The in vitro bioassays used in this study may serve as a valuable tool to predict the potential ecological hazards of the organic pollutants in the WLFZ to the aquatic organisms in some extent.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41101499) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 0400219213). The research was also supported by a personal grant to Lingling Wu by the DAAD scholarship program of Germany.

The authors would like to thank the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF), for supporting the research cluster “Pollutants/Water/Sediment—Impacts of Transformation and Transportation Processes on the Yangtze Water Quality” and the BMBF DLR for supporting a cooperation project with Chinese colleagues.

Henner Hollert is also grateful for the support of the Chinese 111 Program (College of Environmental Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Yangtze Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Yangtze Water Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Lingling Wu, Li Liu, Ling Chen & Henner Hollert

  2. Institute for Environmental Research (Biology V), Department of Ecosystem Analysis, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Lingling Wu, Tilman Floehr, Thomas-Benjamin Seiler & Henner Hollert

  3. College of Resources and Environmental Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Xingzhong Yuan & Henner Hollert

  4. School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210000, China

    Henner Hollert

Authors
  1. Lingling Wu
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  2. Li Liu
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  3. Tilman Floehr
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  4. Thomas-Benjamin Seiler
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  5. Ling Chen
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  7. Henner Hollert
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Correspondence to Henner Hollert.

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Responsible editor: Klara Hilscherova

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Wu, L., Liu, L., Floehr, T. et al. Assessment of cytotoxicity and AhR-mediated toxicity of sediments from water level fluctuation zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir, China. J Soils Sediments 16, 2166–2173 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1425-2

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