The SWIFT periphyton test for high-capacity assessments of toxicant effects on microalgal community development

The SWIFT periphyton test was developed as a simple and high-capacity approach for assessing toxicant effects on the succession of natural communities. Attached microbial communities (periphyton) were developed over a 7 to 9 day period on artificial glass substratum submerged at sea and then transferred to a controlled indoor environment for 4 day incubation with toxicants. Added nutrients and continuous light over the test phase facilitated periphyton growth and consequently accelerated the rate of ecological succession. The structure and physiology of the algal community can be analysed using any suitable method. In this paper we suggest HPLC-based analyses of community pigment profiles as a fast and less laborious alternative to e.g. microscopic species counts. Several crucial properties of the SWIFT test were evaluated: the biological complexity of the periphyton used for testing, the consequences of the 4 day incubation under artificial conditions, toxicant effects on community structure and the feasibility of using pigment profiles as descriptors of periphyton communities. The performance of SWIFT as an ecotoxicological test system was evaluated using the three antifouling agents irgarol 1051, Sea-Nine™ 211 (DCOIT) and TBT (tri-n-butyltin). Periphyton communities used in SWIFT were of high taxonomic richness and diversity, and there were no indications for adverse changes in these characteristics over the 4 day test phase. Community pigment profiles discriminated between different communities with a resolution equally good to microscopic species counts. Comparative concentration-response studies with a two-week microcosm experiment and SWIFT revealed similar concentration and toxicant-dependent shifts in the relative abundances of species. This shows that despite the methodological simplifications in SWIFT, crucial ecological features such as competition and species sensitivity profiles were still the major factors determining the ecological succession under toxicant exposure. The sensitivity of SWIFT was equal to that of the flow-through microcosms for irgarol and TBT and lower for DCOIT, probably because of the semi-static test regime in SWIFT. Species composition and pigment profiles over seasons, together with toxicant-induced effects on the diatom xantophyll cycle and the relative content of beta-carotene, shows that pigment profiles reflect both the taxonomy and the physiology of a community. Similar to encountered changes in species composition, pigment profiles were specifically influenced by the tested toxicants.