Toxicity of environmentally important micropollutants on three trophic levels

Abstract

Micropollution is a serious environmental problem caused by continuous entry of trace quantities of toxic chemical substances into the aquatic environment. In the present study, three trophic levels of the aquatic ecosystems were used to evaluate the acute toxicities of environmentally important micropollutants including heavy metals, pesticides and drugs. There is a scarcity of information on toxicity of the studied substances on marine water algae. Among studied micropollutants, the most toxic chemical to Daphnia magna and Danio rerio was found to be 1-Chloro-2,4 dinitrobenzene with EC50 of 0.002 and 4.2 mg/L, respectively. Although this compound was also toxic to marine algae, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, arsenic showed the highest toxicity to the algae with EC50 of 2.4 mg/L. As compared to other organisms, D. magna was found to have higher sensitivity to all of the tested micropollutants.