Entomology, Department of

 

Date of this Version

April 1999

Comments

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 1038–1045, 1999. Copyright 1999. Used by permission.

Abstract

The effects of prior chronic exposure to atrazine on responses to subsequent acute exposures were investigated using a common benthic diatom. Clonal, axenic cultures of Craticula cuspidata were established from the Platte River (Nebraska) and obtained from a culture collection (unlikely prior exposure to atrazine). All cultures received a chronic 67-d treatment of 1 μg/L atrazine, and growth was monitored using fluorometric detection of chlorophyll a. Chronic atrazine exposure significantly reduced growth rate only during the first day of treatment (p= 0.0001); no significant effect was detected throughout the remainder of the 67-d period. Following the chronic treatment, clones were exposed to six atrazine concentrations (83, 188, 402, 860, 1,782, and 3,250 μg/L) to ascertain whether prior exposure influenced the tolerance of this diatom. Prior chronic exposure had a negative effect on growth following subsequent exposures to higher concentrations. A significant decline in growth was detected on days 7, 9, and 12 between previously exposed and control clones at 83 μg/L of atrazine. The lack of increased tolerance in C. cuspidata after a realistic chronic exposure indicates that the levels of atrazine presently found in many lotic systems may inhibit the growth of periphyton during periods of higher pulses of atrazine characteristic of spring runoff events.

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