The Effect of PH on the Acute Toxicity of Phenanthrene in a Marine Microalgae Chlorella Salina

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2018 Dec 6

PMID 30514863

Citations 2

Authors

Haigang Chen

Zhe Zhang

Fei Tian

Linbao Zhang

Yitong Li

Wengui Cai

Xiaoping Jia

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Phenanthrene is one of the most abundant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in continental shelf environment of China and is on the EPA's Priority Pollutant list. In this study, the effects of phenanthrene on marine algal growth rate were determined after 96-h exposure at pH 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0 in seawater of salinity 35. Two measuring techniques to assess growth inhibition were also compared using prompt fluorescence and microscopic cell count. The results showed that the toxicity of phenanthrene increased significantly (p < 0.05) with decreasing pH, with the nominal concentration required to inhibit growth rate by 50%, EC, decreasing from 1.893 to 0.237 mg L as pH decreased from 9.0 to 6.0, with a decrease higher than 55% from 10.0 to 9.0. In addition, the nominal EC values calculated in this study were at the same range of some environmental concentrations of phenanthrene close to areas of crude oil exploration. Based on the two measuring techniques, the results showed that cell count and fluorescence measurement were significantly different (p < 0.05), and the nominal EC values calculated with cell count measurement were significantly higher than fluorescence measurement at pH 8.0, 9.0 and 10.0. In conclusion, the present studies confirmed that acidification of seawater could affect the toxicity of phenanthrene to this species of microalgae, and which encouraged further studies involving responses of marine organisms to ocean acidification.

Citing Articles

Physiological Responses of the Bivalves and Following Exposure to Phenanthrene: Toxicokinetics, Dynamics and Biomarkers Study.

Dellali M, Mardassi K, Harrath A, Mansour L, Pacioglu O, Aldahmash W Animals (Basel). 2023; 13(1).

PMID: 36611758 PMC: 9817832. DOI: 10.3390/ani13010151.

Stimulatory and inhibitory effects of phenanthrene on physiological performance of Chlorella vulgaris and Skeletonema costatum.

Jiang L, Pan Y, Zhu S, Qiu J, Shang Y, Xu J Sci Rep. 2022; 12(1):5194.

PMID: 35338166 PMC: 8956611. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08733-9.

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