title: Toxicity of natural mixtures of organic pollutants in temperate and polar marine phytoplankton.
abstract: Semivolatile and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) undergo atmospheric transport before being deposited to the oceans, where they partition to phytoplankton organic matter. The goal of this study was to determine the toxicity of naturally occurring complex mixtures of organic pollutants to temperate and polar phytoplankton communities from the Mediterranean Sea, the North East (NE) Atlantic, and Southern Oceans. The cell abundance of the different phytoplankton groups, chlorophyll a concentrations, viability of the cells, and growth and decay constants were monitored in response to addition of a range of concentrations of mixtures of organic pollutants obtained from seawater extracts. Almost all of the phytoplankton groups were significantly affected by the complex mixtures of non-polar and polar organic pollutants, with toxicity being greater for these mixtures than for single POPs or simple POP mixtures. Cocktails' toxicity arose at concentrations as low as tenfold the field oceanic levels, probably due to a higher chemical activity of the mixture than of simple POPs mixtures. Overall, smaller cells were the most affected, although Mediterranean picophytoplankton was significantly more tolerant to non-polar POPs than picophytoplankton from the Atlantic Ocean or the Bellingshausen Sea microphytoplankton.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Change Research, Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain. Electronic address: echevestepedro@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Echeveste
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile; Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristóbal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Galbán-Malagón
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dachs
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain; Norges Geotekniske Institutt, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Naiara
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Berrojalbiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Change Research, Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain; Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agustí
mesh_terms: D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D000077194:Chlorophyll A; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002734:Chlorophyll; D000077194:Chlorophyll A
keywords: Atlantic Ocean; Marine pollution; Organic pollutant; Phytoplankton; Pollutant mixture; Southern Ocean