Elsevier

Chemosphere

Volume 56, Issue 4, July 2004, Pages 315-320
Chemosphere

Effects of propanil, tebufenozide and mefenacet on growth of four freshwater species of phytoplankton: a microplate bioassay

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2004.01.038Get rights and content

Abstract

The Albufera Natural Park situated in Valencia (Spain), with a very rich flora and fauna is surrounded by rice fields in which pesticide spraying is a regular practice. With this in mind, the sensitivity of four algal species, Scenedesmus acutus, Scenedesmus subspicatus, Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorella saccharophila to pesticides propanil, tebufenozide and mefenacet was studied using single species toxicity tests. Organisms were exposed to different concentrations of these herbicides and the algal growth was measured in a microplate reader at 410 nm, at 0, 24, 48 and 72 h. Tebufenozide appeared to be the most inhibitory to Scenedesmus and Chlorella species growth. 72 h EC50 of propanil, tebufenozide and mefenacet ranged from 0.29 to 5.98 mg/l, 0.12 to 0.15 mg/l and from 0.25 to 0.67 mg/l, respectively for the four algal species. The two species of Chlorella were more tolerant than the two species of Scenedesmus.

Introduction

Rice is one of the most cultivated crops in the world. In Europe, it is mainly cultivated in the Mediterranean Basin, representing Spain, with 113.076 ha in year 2001, a 28.2% of the total rice cultivated surface (Astorga Ramirez, 2001). In Spain, this crop is usually cultivated in fields situated within the borders of natural areas in which agriculture and wildlife and flora have to live together.

Some examples of the mentioned areas in Spain are Doñana National Park, Delta del Ebro Natural Park and Albufera Natural Park (ANP). The last one is located to the south of Valencia City very close to the Mediterranean sea, as seen in Fig. 1. Parts of the rice fields are within the borders of the ANP, surrounding the lake, whilst other ones are not included. The permission for pesticide application depends on the situation of the rice field in that particular area.

Both types of rice fields of ANP are sprayed with pesticides several times during the crop cycle, pre- and post-emergence herbicides during May and June, insecticides to control Chilo supressalis during June and July, and fungicides to prevent or control the main rice disease in the ANP, Pyricularya grisea during July and early August.

The applied active ingredients that do not reach their target can be transported along irrigation/drainage canals to the lake where, depending on their physico-chemical properties will remain more or less time, interacting with the flora and fauna of the lake.

On the first level of the lake trophic chain we can find the phytoplankton, microscopic algae which are the food for the next steps in trophic chain. Wetland contamination could result in a die-off of most algal species present, causing a severe decline of this food source. Alternatively, certain species or groups of algae could be selectively inhibited. Thus, a more precise knowledge of sprayed pesticides effects on the lake's microflora is required, if we were to preserve both the lake environment and agriculture in the ANP. Because mefenacet, propanil and tebufenozide are very common pesticides in this area it is important to assess the adverse impacts these chemicals may have on nontarget organisms in aquatic ecosystems.

Propanil [3,4-dichloropropionanilide] is a herbicide used in post-emergence in rice at 2.5–5.0 kg/ha to control broad-leaved and grass weeds including Amaranthus retroflexus, Digitaria spp., Echinochloa spp., Panicum spp., and Setaria spp.; also used, in mixture with MCPA in wheat. Mefenacet [2-benzothiazol-2-yloxy-N-methylacetanilide] is used in pre-emergence and early post-emergence mainly in transplanted rice at 1.2–1.6 kg/ha to control grass weeds, with a specific action against Echinochloa crus-galli) (Worthing and Hance, 1991; Tomlin, 1997). Finally, tebufenozide [N-tert-butyl-N-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)-N-(4-ethylbenzoyl) hydrazine], a synthetic insect growth regulator also known as RH-5992 or Mimic, is a nonsteroidal ecdysone agonist mimicking the molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone in larval insects and exhibiting insecticidal activity by inducing premature and incomplete molting of larvae of various lepidopteran insect pests; the insecticide is toxic to Lepidoptera and has a relatively low toxicity to nontarget species such as mammals, birds, fish and bees (Wing et al., 1988; Burt, 1990).

The objective of this study was to investigate the effective concentrations of pesticides propanil, mefenacet and tebufenozide that caused 50% of growth inhibition, in pure cultures, of two wild species of phytoplankton representatives of Mediterranean wetlands, isolated from the Albufera lake (Valencia, Spain) and two laboratory strains.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

The chlorophyceae Scenedesmus acutus (Meyens), Scenedesmus subspicatus CCAP 276/22, Chlorella vulgaris Beijerinck and Chlorella saccharophila (Krüger) Migula were selected for the toxicity tests. S. acutus and C. saccharophila were isolated from samples collected from the Albufera lake in Valencia (Spain). S. subspicatus and C. vulgaris were kindly supplied by the Institute of Freshwater Ecology (Ambleside, UK) and by the Area of Environmental Toxicology (CISA-INIA, Spain), respectively. These

Results and discussion

Experimental exposure concentrations of propanil that caused significant effects (P<0.05) on the algal growth with respect to control values ranged from 2.5 to 40 mg/l for Chlorella species and from 0.15 to 2.0 mg/l for Scenedesmus species. The concentrations of mefenacet and tebufenozide that caused significant effects (P<0.05) on the algal growth were lower, between 0.06 and 1.0 mg/l and between 0.04 and 2.5 mg/l, respectively, for the four algal species (Table 2, Table 3, Table 4).

A broad

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from “Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologı́a” (AGF 99-0286–C03-03).

Diego Gómez de Barreda Ferraz. Doctor of Philosophy degree in Agronomist Engineer (Polytechnic University of Valencia) in 1999. Professor in the Department of Plant Production (Polytechnic University of Valencia) since 2000. Visiting Fellow at Long Ashton Research Station (Bristol, UK) and Horticulture Research International (Wellesbourne, UK) as PhD student, working in dose-effect experiences with cereal weeds and sulfonylureas, and modeling herbicide behaviour in soil.

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    Diego Gómez de Barreda Ferraz. Doctor of Philosophy degree in Agronomist Engineer (Polytechnic University of Valencia) in 1999. Professor in the Department of Plant Production (Polytechnic University of Valencia) since 2000. Visiting Fellow at Long Ashton Research Station (Bristol, UK) and Horticulture Research International (Wellesbourne, UK) as PhD student, working in dose-effect experiences with cereal weeds and sulfonylureas, and modeling herbicide behaviour in soil.

    Consuelo Sabater Marco. Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biology (Polytechnic University of Valencia) in 1994. Professor in the Department of Biotechnology (Polytechnic University of Valencia) since 1994. Visiting Fellow at the Agricultural Chemistry Institute (Perugia) and at the Department of Environmental Biology (Siena). Research experiences in Biomarkers, Ecotoxicology and Risk Environmental Assessment in Polytechnic University of Valencia.

    Jose Marı́a Carrasco Dorrien. Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry (University of Valencia) in 1968. Professor in the Department of Biotechnology (Polytechnic University of Valencia) since 1963. Senior researcher in matters of Ecotoxicology and Risk Environmental Assessment in Polytechnic University of Valencia.

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