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Monitoring of Waste Water Samples Using the ECOTOX Biosystem and the Flagellate Alga Euglena gracilis

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Abstract

In this study, a fast bioassay using the ECOTOX system to evaluate biological safety of waste water samples from different sources was performed. This biological system works full automatically to test water quality. The system uses the image analysis of movement behavior of the flagellate Euglena gracilis as a model organism. The measured parameters are cell motility, velocity, orientation (r-value, upward swimming and alignment) as well as cell form (compactness). In most tested waste samples, precision of orientation (r-value) is inhibited at concentrations which showed less effect on the other parameters. Motility and compactness were noticed to be the least inhibited parameters in response to waste water samples. The results of waste treatment plants revealed the efficiency of the used purification system. Movement as well as orientation parameters in E. gracilis showed high sensitivity toward chlorine. The order of sensitivity was motility > velocity > r-value > upward swimming with EC50 values of 0.69, 0.81, 0.85, and 1.78 mg L−1, respectively. ECOTOX with its test organism (E. gracilis) provides an automatic, fast and sensitive system to monitor water samples.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for granting a scholarship to Hoda Ahmed.

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  1. Hoda Ahmed

    Present address: Botany and Microbiology department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Aflatoon Street, 21526, El-Shatby, Egypt

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  1. Department für Biologie, Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Staudtstr. 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Hoda Ahmed

  2. Neue Str.9, 91096, Möhrendorf, Germany

    Donat-Peter Häder

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Correspondence to Hoda Ahmed.

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Ahmed, H., Häder, DP. Monitoring of Waste Water Samples Using the ECOTOX Biosystem and the Flagellate Alga Euglena gracilis . Water Air Soil Pollut 216, 547–560 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-010-0552-4

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