Usefulness of a freshwater macrophyte (Potamogeton pusillus) for an environmental risk assessment in a multi-source contaminated basin.

BERTRAND, LIDWINA; MONFERRÁN, MAGDALENA VICTORIA; VALDÉS, MARÍA EUGENIA; AMÉ, MARÍA VALERIA

CHEMOSPHERE

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019 p. 1003 - 1003

0045-6535

hemical analysis of pollutants in environmental matrices cannot always offer powerful evidence on their impact and toxicity on the aquatic biota. This paper reports the ability of Potamogeton pusillus to highlight in an aquatic ecosystem those sites with higher environmental degradation through an active biomonitoring. Organisms were exposed for 96 h in seven sites along a river where variation in pollutants mixtures and levels could be expected due to different pollution sources. Different anthropogenic activities favoured the presence of pharmaceutical compounds along the basin (atenolol and carbamazepine showed the highest levels in water) as well as metals in water (Pb, Al, As, B, Hg) and sediments (Hg) surpassing local and international environmental guidelines. Through several biomarkers responses, P. pusillus showed sensitivity when exposed to different environmental scenarios and succeeded indicating the most contaminated sites. An integrative biomarker response index (IBR) co