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Physiological sensitivity of Haematococcus pluvialis (Chlorophyta) to environmental pollutants: a comparison with Microcystis wesenbergii (cyanobacteria) and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (Chlorophyta)

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Abstract

Haematococcus pluvialis is beneficial to human health and is important for commercial use. However, it seldom prevails in permanent freshwater bodies. Increasing environmental pollutants from anthropogenic activity may threaten the wide distribution of H. pluvialis. Here, we quantified and compared the adverse effects of the common pesticides atrazine, pentachlorophenol, malathion, and 3,5-dichlorophenol and the heavy metals Cu(II), Cr(VI), and Cd(II) on H. pluvialis, Microcystis wesenbergii (a freshwater bloom-forming cyanobacterium), and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (a standard toxicity test species). We found that H. pluvialis was the species most sensitive to 3,5-dichlorophenol and Cr(VI) exposure and the most tolerant to pentachlorophenol exposure according to IC50, changes in chlorophyll a content, maximum electron transport rates (ETRmax), the quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), and esterase activity. Haematococcus pluvialis was also the species most sensitive to atrazine according to IC50, chlorophyll a, and ETRmax. Overall, our findings suggest that atrazine, 3,5-dichlorophenol, and Cr(VI) are potential factors limiting the distribution of H. pluvialis. We suggest that H. pluvialis can be a potentially useful bioindicator for evaluating pollutants. Furthermore, ETRmax, FDA assay, and flow cytometry can be combined with Haematococcus to test for toxicity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Chenlin Hu of the University of Houston and Dongbo Ding of the The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for useful suggestions on paper preparation. We also thank Dr. Michael A. Borowitzka and two anonymous referees for critical suggestions.

Funding

This work was financially supported by China Agriculture Research System (CARS-50), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31000179), and Teachers Research Funding of Central South University (2014JSJJ035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, China

    Shuiping Peng, Min Long & Jie Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Lingling Zheng & Lirong Song

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  1. Shuiping Peng
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  2. Min Long
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Correspondence to Jie Li.

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Peng, S., Long, M., Zheng, L. et al. Physiological sensitivity of Haematococcus pluvialis (Chlorophyta) to environmental pollutants: a comparison with Microcystis wesenbergii (cyanobacteria) and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (Chlorophyta). J Appl Phycol 31, 365–374 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-018-1557-4

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