A retrospective analysis of contamination and periphyton PICT patterns for the antifoulant irgarol 1051, around a small marina on the Swedish west coast.

Irgarol is a triazine photosystem II (PSII) inhibitor that has been used in Sweden as an antifouling ingredient since the 1990s. Early microcosm studies indicated that periphyton was sensitive to irgarol at concentrations regularly found in harbours and marinas. However, field studies of irgarol effects on the Swedish west coast in 1994, using the pollution-induced community tolerance (PICT) approach, failed to detect any effects of the toxicant in the field. A PICT study involves sampling of replicate communities in a gradient of contamination, and a comparison of their community tolerance levels, with an increase being an indication that sensitive species have been eliminated and replaced by more tolerant ones. Typically, short-term assays are used to quantify the community tolerance levels. Later PICT studies in the same area over a 10 year period demonstrate that irgarol tolerance levels have increased, although the contamination pattern has been stable. Our results support the hypothesis that that the PICT potential was low initially, due to a small differential sensitivity between the community members, and that a persistent selection pressure was required to favour and enrich irgarol-tolerant species or genotypes.

Effects of three antifouling agents on algal communities and algal reproduction: mixture toxicity studies with TBT, Irgarol, and Sea-Nine.

The toxicity of three antifoulants (Sea-Nine, Irgarol, and TBT) was determined individually and in mixtures in two tests with microalgae. Effects on periphyton community photosynthesis and reproduction of the unicellular green algae Scenedesmus vacuolatus were investigated. The tested antifoulants were highly toxic in both tests. Observed mixture toxicities were compared with predictions derived from two concepts: Independent Action (IA), assumed to be more relevant for the tested mixtures that were composed of dissimilarly acting substances, and Concentration Addition (CA), regarded as a reasonable worst-case approach in predictive mixture hazard assessment. Despite the corresponding mechanistic basis, IA failed to provide accurate predictions of the observed mixture toxicities. Results show the same pattern in both assays. Mixture effects at high concentrations were slightly overestimated and effects at low concentrations were slightly underestimated. Maximum observed deviations between observed and IA-predicted concentrations amount to a factor of 4. The suggested worst-case approach using CA was protective only in effect regions above 20%. Nevertheless, the application of any concept that accounts for possible mixture effects is more realistic than the present chemical-by-chemical assessment.

Predictability of the mixture toxicity of 12 similarly acting congeneric inhibitors of photosystem II in marine periphyton and epipsammon communities.

Testing of single chemicals with single species is common ecotoxicological practice in contrast to contaminated environments where highly diverse biological communities are exposed to highly diverse mixtures of chemical compounds. We, therefore, investigated whether mixture toxicity approaches that have been used successfully for single species, might also be applied on a community level of biological complexity. Twelve inhibitors of photosystem II, selected by QSAR and chemometrical approaches as the structurally most similar from a congeneric group of phenylurea herbicides, were tested singly and as mixtures on two types of marine microalgal communities, periphyton and epipsammon. Inhibition of photosynthesis was measured in short-term tests using incorporation of radiolabelled carbon (14C) to estimate photosynthetic rates. Two basic concepts, concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA), were used to predict the toxicities of the mixtures. Congeneric and similar-acting substances such as the phenylureas are expected to comply with CA rather than IA. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether these concepts can be used to predict mixture toxicity also to periphyton and epipsammon photosynthesis, i.e. at the level of natural communities. We found that deviations between observed and predicted mixture toxicity were relatively small but that CA predictions were the more accurate ones. The predictions proved to be robust, when based on single substance information even from different seasons, years, and sites. We conclude that the concept of CA for predicting mixture toxicity applies also at the community level of algal testing; at least when a physiological short-term effect indicator is used that matches the mechanism of action of the substances.