No abstract

The response of microbenthic communities to sustained metal stress was studied in three lowland rivers with different levels of pollution. Tolerance against zinc and cadmium was determined in short-term toxicity tests with microbenthic assemblages colonizing glass discs. Photosynthetic activity served as an endpoint in tests for algae, whereas for bacteria thymidine incorporation was determined. For bacterial assemblages from unpolluted locations, EC50 values in short-term tests ranged between 6.7 and 56.2 &mgr;M zinc, and 8.7 and 25.5 &mgr;M cadmium, respectively. Bacterial assemblages from the two most polluted sites were significantly more tolerant for zinc (EC50: 994 &mgr;M and >1,000 &mgr;M) and cadmium (EC50: 218 &mgr;M and 154 &mgr;M). Results indicated a shift in community composition toward pollution-adapted organisms when a threshold concentration of 1 &mgr;M zinc is exceeded. Although an increasing community tolerance was also indicated for algae, EC50 values for microbenthic algae from all sites exceeded in most cases the highest metal concentrations tested (Zn: 1,000 &mgr;M; Cd: 320 &mgr;M). Since species composition of algal assemblages was found to change at much lower metal levels, it is concluded that short-term toxicity tests measuring photosynthesis inhibition do not reflect well the long-term effects of these metals. Toxic effects of metals on both algal and bacterial assemblages are attenuated by precipitation and complexing capacities of the biofilm.

After indications from the literature that nutrient concentrations may modify the toxicity of herbicides to natural periphyton communities, this study aims to provide experimental proof for atrazine. In this microcosm experiment, phosphate (P) addition did not ameliorate atrazine toxicity to periphyton. Three weeks of P addition did not increase atrazine tolerance (measured as EC50 in acute toxicity tests), whereas exposure to atrazine under conditions that were either P-limited or non-P-limited clearly reduced the development of algal biomass. Long-term exposure to atrazine induced tolerance of the community to the herbicide, and this was not influenced by P addition. Tolerance induction in this microcosm experiment has been compared with previously published field data from the same area of study and indicates that tolerance induction by atrazine may take place under atrazine exposure in streams as well as in microcosms.

No abstract