Editorial: Microbial Ecotoxicology

Abstract

Editorial on the Research Topic Microbial Ecotoxicology In the age of the Anthropocene, the world is facing unprecedented environmental challenges that have multifactorial and interlinked causes including population growth, pollution, and climate change. The "One Health" and "EcoHealth" paradigms emphasize the urgent need to protect ecosystem health in order to ensure human well-being and food security (Naeem et al., 2016; Destoumieux-Garzón et al., 2018). It is noteworthy that the majority of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) fundamentally link environmental health to human health and well-being (Blicharska et al., 2019). Within this context, mitigating anthropogenic impacts on ecosystem functions and services is a paramount challenge. Perhaps because they are not visible, microorganisms that provide or support key ecosystem services have generally been neglected as endpoints of concern in environmental risk assessment frameworks (Brandt et al., 2015). This, in spite of the fact that microbial communities deliver ecological processes and ecosystem services that are essential to life on earth (Cavicchioli et al., 2019). Exposure to inorganic or organic chemical pollutants, sometimes at very low concentrations, has the potential to kill or inhibit sensitive environmental microorganisms, or disrupt their activities. As with all biology on earth, microorganisms are subject to multiple physical and chemical stressors, including mixtures of commercial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and other agents that reach the environment either by design or in waste streams. Setting acceptable standards for chemical pollution on the basis of microbial impacts remains a significant challenge (Rockström et al., 2009). Over the last few decades, a wide range of studies has investigated the interactions between microorganisms and pollutants at different biological scales ranging from the molecular to community levels. These studies have contributed to the emergence and the development of a new Research Topic designated "microbial ecotoxicology" (Ghiglione et al., 2016), built on key concepts from both microbial ecology and "classical" ecotoxicology. This Research Topic has recently benefited from tremendous technological improvements in several related fields, including environmental chemistry, microbiology, and microbial ecology as well as molecular and so called "omics ecology" (Marco and Abram, 2019). Indeed, a wide range of tools are now available to characterize microbial responses at different biological levels following exposure to a large variety of pollutants and their transformation products. Those concern so-called "legacy pollutants" (e.g., metals and metalloids, pesticides, chlorinated solvents or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs), but also pollutants of emerging concern (e.g., pharmaceuticals, nanoparticles, plastic debris, biopesticides, or cyanotoxins). These responses are very complex and include reciprocal interactions because of the capacity of microorganisms to modify the ...

Microbial Ecotoxicology Advances to Improve Environmental and Human Health Under Global Change

“…Microbial Ecotoxicology is an interdisciplinary science at the intersection of microbial ecology, toxicology, ecotoxicology, and analytical chemistry (Ghiglione et al, 2016;Shahsavari et al, 2017;Pesce et al, 2020). This Research Topic was proposed aiming to present the full range of research currently in place in an emerging topic like microbial ecotoxicology.…”

Antibiotrophy: Key Function for Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to Colonize Soils—Case of Sulfamethazine-Degrading Microbacterium sp. C448

“…The adaptive capacities of environmental microorganisms toward organic pollutants are not only limited to the increased tolerance or resistance but also include the development of catabolic pathways ( Pesce et al, 2020 ). In this way, the long-term exposure of microbial communities to these substances can lead to the emergence of bacteria able to use them as nutrient sources ( Copley, 2000 ; Janssen et al, 2005 ).…”

Contrasting Effects of Environmental Concentrations of Sulfonamides on Microbial Heterotrophic Activities in Freshwater Sediments

“…However, the suitability of ecotoxicological tests at species or population level to assess the ecological effects of antibiotics is controversial ( Boxall et al, 2012 ; Brandt et al, 2015 ). In particular, microbial communities are rarely taken into account in these types of test ( Brandt et al, 2015 ), even though they are key players in a broad range of ecological processes that are essential to ecosystem functioning and that contribute to ecosystem services ( Cavicchioli et al, 2019 ; Pesce et al, 2020 ).…”