Effects of nanoparticles in fresh waters: risks, mechanisms and interactions

Bundschuh, Mirco; Seitz, Frank; Rosenfeldt, Ricki R.; Schulz, Ralf

doi:10.1111/fwb.12701

Cited by 92 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 126 publications

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“…Bundschuh et al . () reviewed the state of the art on understanding the effects of ENPs in fresh waters. They point to the importance of combining simple laboratory experiments with more complex test systems integrating interactions among trophic levels, community composition and ecosystem and evolutionary processes to assess ENP effects.…”

Section: Overview Of Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering integration of freshwater ecology with ecotoxicology

Gessner

Tlili

2016

Freshw Biol

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SUMMARY1. Ecology and ecotoxicology have different historical roots, despite their similar names, but are slowly converging to meet the challenge of addressing the massive global proliferation and release of chemicals in the environment. The conceptual, methodological, review and standard research papers in this special issue reflect this emerging trend of blending ecological and ecotoxicological perspectives to assess impacts in freshwater ecosystems. 2. Assessing community and ecosystem impacts of chemical contaminants is complex, however, and will require approaches that explicitly consider biological and chemical diversity as well as the natural variability of environmental factors at multiple spatial and temporal scales. 3. Central themes of the papers in this issue are (i) the importance of indirect effects of chemical contaminants on species interactions and food webs; (ii) effects of multiple stressors, especially interactions between contaminants and environmental factors; (iii) consequences of chemical exposure on ecosystem processes such as primary production and litter decomposition; (iv) the need to account for context dependency and (v) potentially harmful community and ecosystem effects of emerging contaminants, among which nanoparticles are prominently represented. 4. Collectively, these papers show that integrating ecological principles into the design and implementation of ecotoxicological research is essential for assessing and predicting contaminant impacts on biological communities and ecosystems. Conversely, applied ecology and bioassessment would benefit from concepts and approaches developed in ecotoxicology and from fully embracing chemical contaminants as key drivers of community structure and ecosystem processes.

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Section: Overview Of Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering integration of freshwater ecology with ecotoxicology

Gessner

Tlili

2016

Freshw Biol

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“…While many studies have examined the effects of engineered nanomaterials on organisms, they have typically examined them in isolation from other likely co‐occurring contaminants that may modulate their ecological effects (Simonin and Richaume , Bundschuh et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineered nanoparticles interact with nutrients to intensify eutrophication in a wetland ecosystem experiment

Simonin

Colman

Anderson

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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Despite the rapid rise in diversity and quantities of engineered nanomaterials produced, the impacts of these emerging contaminants on the structure and function of ecosystems have received little attention from ecologists. Moreover, little is known about how manufactured nanomaterials may interact with nutrient pollution in altering ecosystem productivity, despite the recognition that eutrophication is the primary water quality issue in freshwater ecosystems worldwide. In this study, we asked two main questions: (1) To what extent do manufactured nanoparticles affect the biomass and productivity of primary producers in wetland ecosystems? (2) How are these impacts mediated by nutrient pollution? To address these questions, we examined the impacts of a citrate-coated gold nanoparticle (AuNPs) and of a commercial pesticide containing Cu(OH) nanoparticles (CuNPs) on aquatic primary producers under both ambient and enriched nutrient conditions. Wetland mesocosms were exposed repeatedly with low concentrations of nanoparticles and nutrients over the course of a 9-month experiment in an effort to replicate realistic field exposure scenarios. In the absence of nutrient enrichment, there were no persistent effects of AuNPs or CuNPs on primary producers or ecosystem productivity. However, when combined with nutrient enrichment, both NPs intensified eutrophication. When either of these NPs were added in combination with nutrients, algal blooms persisted for >50 d longer than in the nutrient-only treatment. In the AuNP treatment, this shift from clear waters to turbid waters led to large declines in both macrophyte growth and rates of ecosystem gross primary productivity (average reduction of 52% ± 6% and 92% ± 5%, respectively) during the summer. Our results suggest that nutrient status greatly influences the ecosystem-scale impact of two emerging contaminants and that synthetic chemicals may be playing an under-appreciated role in the global trends of increasing eutrophication. We provide evidence here that chronic exposure to Au and Cu(OH) nanoparticles at low concentrations can intensify eutrophication of wetlands and promote the occurrence of algal blooms.

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“…Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are used widely for commercial and industrial purposes due to their antimicrobial, antifungal and antiviral capabilities (Bundschuh et al, 2016). The widespread use and diverse application of AgNPs mean that they may reach the aquatic environment both through wastewater discharge and through other indirect sources (Benn & Westerhoff, 2008;Blaser et al, 2008;Gottschalk et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of silver nanoparticles on bacterioplankton in a boreal lake

et al. 2016

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SUMMARY1. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used antimicrobial agents and a growing body of evidence suggests that their release into aquatic environments threatens natural bacterial communities and whole ecosystems. However, a knowledge gap exists between the toxic effects of AgNPs found in laboratory studies and their potential impacts in natural environments. 2. In an enclosure experiment conducted in a boreal lake, we exposed natural bacterial communities to AgNPs with two common types of coatings (polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and citrate) under two different exposure regimes, a one-time (pulse) and a continuous (chronic) addition. AgNP additions increased Ag concentrations to nearly 50 lg L À1 in the highest treatments. We examined bacterial responses (abundance, biomass, production, chlorophyll-a content and nutrient stoichiometry) over the course of 6 weeks in the summer of 2012. 3. Bacterioplankton exposed to AgNPs initially accumulated Ag over the experimental period regardless of AgNP concentration or coating. After the initial period of increase, Ag in the bacterial size fraction changed largely in concert with bacterial biomass. 4. We found no toxic effects of AgNPs on bacterioplankton abundance, biomass, production or chlorophyll-a content throughout the experiment. Bacterial production was greater after the pulse addition of PVP-coated AgNPs and in the chronic addition of PVP-coated AgNPs at the highest concentrations. Furthermore, AgNPs produced no significant changes in nutrient stoichiometry of the bacterioplankton size fraction. 5. This lack of effects of AgNPs on lake bacterioplankton observed under the natural conditions studied here differs from results of short-term and laboratory studies of single-species bacterial cultures. Our results thus indicate AgNP effects in lakes may be less than expected based on standard laboratory experiments, and that additional studies are needed to understand AgNP toxicity under realistic natural conditions in lakes and other ecosystems.

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Effects of nanoparticles in fresh waters: risks, mechanisms and interactions

Cited by 92 publications

References 126 publications

Fostering integration of freshwater ecology with ecotoxicology

Fostering integration of freshwater ecology with ecotoxicology

Engineered nanoparticles interact with nutrients to intensify eutrophication in a wetland ecosystem experiment

Effects of silver nanoparticles on bacterioplankton in a boreal lake

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