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Sensitivity of various parameters in Euglena gracilis to short-term exposure to industrial wastewaters

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Abstract

Due to the presence of various potential pollutants industrial wastewaters pose considerable threats to natural waters and make it unfit for the aquatic biota. Analysis of wastewaters by chemical methods is a common practice; however, it does not reflect the toxic effects on living organism. Therefore, bioassessment is necessary for monitoring of wastewater quality. In the present study, the toxic effects of wastewater samples from different industries were evaluated using Euglena gracilis as a biotest organism. Various parameters of the freshwater flagellate E. gracilis like motility, swimming velocity, cell shape, gravitactic orientation (using the automatic biotest ECOTOX) and photosynthetic efficiency (using a pulse amplitude modulated fluorometer) were used as end points for toxicity assessment. In addition, the samples were analysed for some ecologically important physicochemical properties. With some exceptions, most of the physicochemical properties of the tested samples were within the acceptable range of national environmental quality standards for municipal and industrial effluents. However, all the water samples adversely affected different parameters in E. gracilis. This study led to the conclusion that different toxic substances present in wastewater, even at low concentrations, can be a possible threat to aquatic biota. The results of this study prove that ECOTOX is a sensitive, easy, and fast bioassay for monitoring of water and wastewater quality. Gravitactic orientation and cell compactness of E. gracilis were the most sensitive parameters to wastewater toxicity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST), Kohat, Pakistan for granting a scholarship to Azizullah. The authors are also thankful to Dr. Martin Schmid, Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt, München for skilful support in the analytical work.

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  1. Department of Biology, Cell Biology Division, Friedrich-Alexander University, Staudtstr. 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Azizullah Azizullah & Peter Richter

  2. Neue Str. 9, 91096, Möhrendorf, Germany

    Donat-Peter Häder

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  1. Azizullah Azizullah
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  2. Peter Richter
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  3. Donat-Peter Häder
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Correspondence to Peter Richter.

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Azizullah, A., Richter, P. & Häder, DP. Sensitivity of various parameters in Euglena gracilis to short-term exposure to industrial wastewaters. J Appl Phycol 24, 187–200 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-011-9667-2

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