Evaluation of Phototrophic Stream Biofilms Under Stress: Comparing Traditional and Novel Ecotoxicological Endpoints After Exposure to Diuron.

ABSTRACT: Stream biofilms have been shown to be among the most sensitive indicators of environmental stress in aquatic ecosystems and several endpoints have been developed to measure biofilm adverse effects caused by environmental stressors. Here, we compare the effects of long-term exposure of stream biofilms to diuron, a commonly used herbicide, on several traditional ecotoxicological endpoints (biomass growth, photosynthetic efficiency, chlorophyll-a content, and taxonomic composition), with the effects measured by recently developed methods [community structure assessed by flow cytometry (FC-CS) and measurement of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS)]. Biofilms grown from local stream water in recirculating microcosms were exposed to a constant concentration of 20 μg/L diuron over a period o

SUBMITTER: Sgier L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6281688 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature