Comparison between the short-term and the long-term toxicity of six triazine herbicides on photobacteria Q67

The bioluminescence inhibition of six triazine herbicides including desmetryne (DES), simetryn (SIM), velpar (VEL), prometon (PRO), metribuzin (MET), and aminotriazine (AMI) on Vibrio qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 (Q67) was determined to investigate the effects of exposure duration on the ecotoxicological relevance of triazine herbicides. Based on the short-term microplate toxicity analysis (MTA), a long-term MTA was established to assess the impact of exposure time on the toxicities of the herbicides. The results show that the long-term toxicities of DES and SIM are similar to their short-term toxicities, and the long-term toxicities of VEL, PRO, and MET are higher than their short-term toxicities, while AMI without short-term toxicity has a high long-term toxicity. In addition, a parabolic relationship was found between the pEC50 (the negative logarithm of the EC50, log 1/EC50) and the logarithm of octanol–water partition coefficient (logKow). To better understand their toxicity process, the time-dependent toxicities of the six herbicides on Q67 were determined over a period of 12 h during which measurements were taken every 30 min to generate an integral effect surface related to both concentration and duration.