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Acute and chronic toxicity of emerging contaminants, alone or in combination, in Chlorella vulgaris and Daphnia magna

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Abstract

This work presents the toxicity results of different compounds classified as emerging contaminants on primary producers and primary consumers in the aquatic compartment. The objectives were to (1) obtain acute and chronic toxicity results for algae and Daphnia magna using standardised or currently used tests, (2) study the relationship between the effects on the impaired feeding rate for daphnia and the effects of reproduction and (3) examine the responses on daphnia and algae after binary combinations of environmentally relevant compounds and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). Toxicity data on personal care products (PCPs), not reported in the scientific literature up to now, are presented. The results confirmed that the Daphnia feeding bioassay can be a sensitive, ecologically relevant endpoint to detect sublethal effects and could complement the information obtained with the reproduction test on Daphnia. The results also suggested that the concomitant occurrence of PFOS and other emerging contaminants in the aquatic compartment could affect the toxicity of some compounds according to their lipophilicity.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by Spanish Project CTM-2013-44986-R.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Ecotoxicology, Department of Environment, Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Crta. A Coruña km 7,5, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    María Victoria Pablos, Pilar García-Hortigüela & Carlos Fernández

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  1. María Victoria Pablos
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  2. Pilar García-Hortigüela
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  3. Carlos Fernández
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Correspondence to María Victoria Pablos.

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Responsible editor: Henner Hollert

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Pablos, M.V., García-Hortigüela, P. & Fernández, C. Acute and chronic toxicity of emerging contaminants, alone or in combination, in Chlorella vulgaris and Daphnia magna . Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 5417–5424 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4119-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4119-1

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