title: Impact of an estrogenic sewage treatment plant effluent on life-history traits of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex.
abstract: Despite efforts to upgrade sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the last decades, STPs are still a major source for the contamination of surface waters, including emerging pollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Because many of these substances are not completely removed in conventional STPs they are regularly detected in surface waters where they have the potential to affect local macroinvertebrate communities. The objective of the current work was to investigate the impact of an estrogenic wastewater effluent on the key life-history traits of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex. G. pulex was exposed in artificial indoor flow-channels under constant conditions to different wastewater concentrations (0%, 33%, 66%, 100%). In parallel the estrogenic activity of wastewater samples was determined using the yeast estrogen screen (YES). Estrogenic activities in the STP effluent were up to 38.6 ng/L estradiol equivalents (EEQ). Amphipods exhibited an increasing body length with increasing wastewater concentrations. Furthermore, we observed a shift of the sex ratio in favour of females, a significantly increased fraction of brooding females and increased fecundity indices with increasing wastewater concentrations. The increased body length is likely to be attributed to the additional nutrient supply while the occurrence of EDCs in the wastewater is the probable cause for the altered sex ratio and fecundity in exposed Gammarus cohorts.
authors.affiliation: a Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Institute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology , Frankfurt am Main , Germany.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oehlmann
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oetken
mesh_terms: D033304:Amphipoda / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002947:Cities; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000032:analysis; D004958:Estradiol / Q000032:analysis*; D004967:Estrogens / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D008018:Life Cycle Stages / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry*; D012744:Sex Ratio; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D052244:Endocrine Disruptors; D004967:Estrogens; D012722:Sewage; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D004958:Estradiol
keywords: Artificial indoor channels; Yeast Estrogen Screen (YES); endocrine disruptor; population dynamics; sex ratio; wastewater contaminants