Effects of low dose silver nanoparticle treatment on the structure and community composition of bacterial freshwater biofilms.

ABSTRACT: The application of engineered silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in a considerable amount of registered commercial products inevitably will result in the continuous release of AgNPs into the natural aquatic environment. Therefore, native biofilms, as the prominent life form of microorganisms in almost all known ecosystems, will be subjected to AgNP exposure. Despite the exponentially growing research activities worldwide, it is still difficult to assess nanoparticle-mediated toxicity in natural environments. In order to obtain an ecotoxicologically relevant exposure scenario, we performed experiments with artificial stream mesocosm systems approaching low dose AgNP concentrations close to predicted environmental concentrations. Pregrown freshwater biofilms were exposed for 14 days to citrate-sta

SUBMITTER: Grun AY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6002094 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature