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Assessing triclosan-induced ecological and trans-generational effects in natural phytoplankton communities: a trait-based field method

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Abstract

We exposed replicated phytoplankton communities confined in semi-permeable membrane-based mesocosms to 0, 0.1, 1 and 10 μg L−1 triclosan (TCS) and placed them back in their original environment to investigate the occurrence of trans-generational responses at individual, population and community levels. TCS diffused out of mesocosms with a half-life of less than 8 h, so that only the parental generation was directly stressed. At the beginning of the experiment and after 7 days (approximately 2 generations) we analysed responses in the phytoplankton using scanning flow-cytometry. We acquired information on several individually expressed phenotypic traits, such as size, biovolume, pigment fluorescence and packaging, for thousands of individuals per replicated population and derived population and community aggregated traits. We found significant changes in community functioning (increased productivity in terms of biovolume and total fluorescence), with maximal effects at 1 μg L−1 TCS. We detected significant and dose-dependent responses on population traits, such as changes in abundance for several populations, increased average size and fluorescence of cells, and strong changes in within-population trait mean and variance (suggesting micro-evolutionary effects). We applied the Price equation approach to partition community effects (changes in biovolume or fluorescence) in their physiological and ecological components, and quantified the residual component (including also evolutionary responses). Our results suggested that evolutionary or inheritable phenotypic plasticity responses may represent a significant component of the total observed change following exposure and over relatively small temporal scales.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to J. Jokela, J. Starrfelt and S. Castiglioni for scientific discussion and advice. We thank D. Steiner for technical support in filed and laboratory work and K. Langford for instrumental chemical analysis. This project was supported by NIVA and Eawag through internal discretionary funds.

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  1. Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Überlandstrasse 133, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Francesco Pomati

  2. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalléen 21, 0349, Oslo, Norway

    Luca Nizzetto

  3. Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX), Kamenice 126/3, 62500, Brno, Czech Republic

    Luca Nizzetto

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  1. Francesco Pomati
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Correspondence to Francesco Pomati.

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Pomati, F., Nizzetto, L. Assessing triclosan-induced ecological and trans-generational effects in natural phytoplankton communities: a trait-based field method. Ecotoxicology 22, 779–794 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-013-1068-7

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