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Recovery potential of periphytic biofilms translocated in artificial streams after industrial contamination (Cd and Zn)

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Abstract

Metal wastes can significantly disturb aquatic communities, particularly photosynthetic organisms, the main primary producers in freshwater running ecosystems. In this study, biofilms and diatoms were used as bioindicators to characterize the kinetics of biofilm recovery. An experimental decontamination study was conducted under laboratory conditions, after biofilm colonisation at a site subject to discharge of industrial metals (Zn and Cd) and in parallel at an upstream site, metal-free, considered as a control. After 24 days of colonisation, biofilms were translocated and maintained in the laboratory for 56 days under clean conditions (control and decontamination) or metal contamination. Various tests were conducted from the community level—measures of metal bioaccumulation, cell densities and taxonomic investigations, to the individual level—measures of teratological forms. After 56 days of decontamination, Zn and Cd concentrations in decontaminated biofilms showed a sharp decline, respectively ranging from 6.7 ± 2 to 4 ± 2.5 mg Zn g−1 DW and from 207.6 ± 24.5 to 45.4 ± 9.9 μg Cd g−1 DW. However, at the end of the experiment bioaccumulations remained significantly higher than concentrations in control biofilms. Despite a diatom evolution in biofilm assemblages, taxonomic inventories did not demonstrate a complete restoration of diatom communities in biofilms under decontamination conditions compared with controls, since metal-resistant species initially present after colonisation at the contaminated site, such as Eolimna minima, persisted in high abundance in decontaminated biofilms. Biofilms kept under metal pressure showed very high bioaccumulation capacities and a sharp decline of species diversity which allowed identification of some resistant species. Regarding these first results on the behaviour of diatom biofilms under experimental decontamination conditions, improvement of the natural hydrosystem’s chemical state appears quickly, but an eventual return to good ecological status appears delayed, with the persistence of metal-tolerant species even after 56 days.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) through its programme CES (Contamination Ecosystèmes Santé) under the reference ANR 08-CES-014 and developed in the RE-SYST project. The authors would like to thank Véronique Duflo, Henri Bouillard, from the EPOC laboratory, and Soizic Morin from the Cemagref/Irstea laboratory, for their support in field work, and Muriel Bonnet and Maryse Boudigues from the Cemagref/Irstea laboratory for the nutrient analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Bordeaux 1, UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Place du Docteur Peyneau, 33120, Arcachon, France

    Adeline Arini, Agnès Feurtet-Mazel & Régine Maury-Brachet

  2. Laboratoire Geoscience and Environment Toulouse (GET) UMR 5563, CNRS OMP-Université Paul Sabatier, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400, Toulouse, France

    Oleg S. Pokrovsky

  3. Cemagref/Irstea, UR REBX, 50 Avenue de Verdun, 33612, Cestas, France

    Adeline Arini, Michel Coste & François Delmas.

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  1. Adeline Arini
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  2. Agnès Feurtet-Mazel
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  3. Régine Maury-Brachet
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  4. Oleg S. Pokrovsky
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  5. Michel Coste
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  6. François Delmas.
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Correspondence to Adeline Arini.

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Arini, A., Feurtet-Mazel, A., Maury-Brachet, R. et al. Recovery potential of periphytic biofilms translocated in artificial streams after industrial contamination (Cd and Zn). Ecotoxicology 21, 1403–1414 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-012-0894-3

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