W. Traunspurger et al., COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECT OF A HERBICIDE ON AQUATIC ORGANISMS IN SINGLE-SPECIES TESTS AND AQUATIC MICROCOSMS, Chemosphere, 33(6), 1996, pp. 1129-1141
In the present investigation the effect of the herbicide isoproturon o
n freshwater and sediment organisms was comparatively investigated in
single species tests and a microcosm study. In single species tests th
e photosynthesis inhibitor isoproturon affected the growth rate of alg
ae. For Chlamydomonas rheinardi the EC50, i.e. the concentration, wher
e the growth rate is inhibited to 50%, was observed at 40 mu g/l. The
growth rate of the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis was slightly inhibit
ed at 700 mu g/l, whereas other heterotrophic organisms (Daphnia magna
and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans) were not affected by isoprot
uron up to concentrations of 1000 mu g/l. In the microcosm study appli
cation of isoproturon to the microcosms up to a concentration of 90 mu
g/l neither affected the abundance nor the community composition of t
he phytoplankton, the zooplankton and the sediment dwelling nematodes.
However, there was a distinct effect on anaerobic microbial degradati
on activity in the sediment. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.