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Antialgal effects of five individual allelochemicals and their mixtures in low level pollution conditions

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Abstract

An effective, environmentally friendly, and eco-sustainable approach for removing harmful microalgae is exploiting the allelopathic potential of aquatic macrophytes. In this study, we simulated field pollution conditions in the laboratory to investigate algal inhibition by allelochemicals, thereby providing insights into field practices. We tested five allelochemicals, i.e., coumarin, ρ-hydroxybenzoic acid, protocatechuic acid, stearic acid, and ρ-aminobenzenesulfonic acid, and a typical green alga, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, under two conditions. In the unpolluted treatment, individual allelochemicals had strong algal inhibition effects, where coumarin and ρ-hydroxybenzoic acid had greater potential for algal inhibition than protocatechuic acid, stearic acid, and ρ-aminobenzenesulfonic acid based on the 50 % inhibitory concentration. However, when two or three allelochemicals were mixed in specific proportions, the algal inhibition rate exceeded 80 %, thereby indicating allelopathic synergistic interactions. Mixtures of four or five allelochemicals had weak effects on algal inhibition, which indicated antagonistic interactions. Furthermore, the presence of low lead pollution significantly reduced the antialgal potential of individual allelochemicals, whereas the allelopathic synergistic interactions with mixtures between two or three allelochemicals were changed into antagonistic effects by low pollution. In particular, the allelopathic antagonistic interactions between four or five allelochemicals were increased by pollution. The allelopathic performance of these five allelochemicals may depend on various factors, such as the chemical species, mixture parameters, and algal strain. Thus, we found that low level pollution reduced the allelopathic inhibition of microalgae by allelochemicals. Therefore, the control of algae by the direct addition of allelochemicals should consider various environmental factors.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Hui Mei, Sumin Ma, and PhD Kun Wan for their assistance with the experiments. We also thank Dr. Duncan E. Jackson for revising and editing our manuscript. This study was supported by the Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Province of China for Universities (KJ2015A122), Key Projects of The Outstanding Young Talents in Colleges and Universities (gxyqZD2016024), and Anhui Province and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China (MOHRSS) for studying abroad.

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  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Anhui Normal University, 189 South Jiuhua Road, Wuhu, 241003, People’s Republic of China

    Shengpeng Zuo, Shoubiao Zhou, Liangtao Ye, Ying Ding & Xiaofeng Jiang

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  1. Shengpeng Zuo
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  2. Shoubiao Zhou
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  3. Liangtao Ye
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Correspondence to Shengpeng Zuo.

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Zuo, S., Zhou, S., Ye, L. et al. Antialgal effects of five individual allelochemicals and their mixtures in low level pollution conditions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 15703–15711 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6770-6

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