Comparative evaluation of acute toxicity by Vibrio fischeri and fern spore based bioassays in the follow-up of toxic chemicals degradation by photocatalysis

Abstract

The development of efficient bioassays is a necessary step for cost-effective environmental monitoring and evaluation of novel decontamination technologies. Marine Vibrio fischeri kits have demonstrated to be extremely sensitive but lack of ecological relevance, especially when assessing impacts on freshwater higher organisms. A novel riparian fern spore microbioassay could merge higher ecological relevance and reduced costs. The aim of this work is the comparative evaluation of the Vibrio fischeri and fern spore bioassays for the follow up of detoxification processes of 30 water contaminated with cyanide and phenol by advanced oxidation technologies, using heterogeneous photocatalysis as example. In both cases, EC50 values differed significantly for V.fisheri commercial kit, V.fisheri lab cultures and Polystichum setiferum fern spores (1.9, 16 and 101 mg cyanide L-1 and 27.0, 49.3 and 1440 mg phenol L-1, respectively). Whereas V.fischeri bioassays are extremely sensitive and dilution series must be prepared, toxicant solutions can be directly applied to spores. Spore microbioassay was also useful in the follow up of photoxidation processes of cyanide and phenol, also reflecting the formation of intermediate degradation by-products even more toxic than phenol. We conclude that this new microbioassay is a promising cost-effective tool for the follow up of decontamination processes.