A new index to assess chemicals increasing the greenhouse effect based on their toxicity to algae

- There was a consistence between disturbance on carbon fixation and their growth inhibition.
- Disturbance on carbon fixation may be a “malware” of worsening greenhouse effect.
- Disturbance on carbon fixation is an index to assess the risk of deepening greenhouse effect.

CO2, as the typical greenhouse gas causing the greenhouse effect, is a major global environmental problem and has attracted increasing attention from governments. Using algae to eliminate CO2, which has been proposed as an effective way to reduce the greenhouse effect in the past decades, can be disturbed by a growing number of artificial chemicals. Thus, seven types of chemicals and Selenastrum capricornutum (algae) were examined in this study, and the good consistency between the toxicity of artificial chemicals to algae and the disturbance of carbon fixation by the chemicals was revealed. This consistency showed that the disturbance of an increasing number of artificial chemicals to the carbon fixation of algae might be a “malware” worsening the global greenhouse effect. Therefore, this study proposes an original, promising index to assess the risk of deepening the greenhouse effect by artificial chemicals before they are produced and marketed.