Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6387859 | Marine Environmental Research | 2013 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
Few data exist on the ecotoxicological effects of nanosized titanium dioxide (nTiO2) towards marine species with specific reference to bivalve molluscs and their relative life stages. Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck was selected to assess the potential adverse effects of nTiO2 (0-64Â mg/L) on its early larval development stages (pre-D shell stage, malformed D-shell stage and normal D-shell stage larvae) considering two exposure scenarios characterised by total darkness (ASTM protocol) and natural photoperiod (light/dark). This approach was considered to check the presence of potential effects associated to the photocatalytic properties of nTiO2. Parallel experiments were carried on with the bulk reference TiCl4. The toxicity of nTiO2 showed to be mainly related to its “nano” condition and to be influenced by the exposure to light that supported the increase in the number of pre-D shell stage (retarded) larvae compared to the malformed ones especially at the maximum effect concentrations (4 and 8Â mg nTiO2/L). The non-linear regression toxicity data analysis showed the presence of two EC50 values per exposure scenario: a) EC(50)1Â =Â 1.23Â mg/L (0.00-4.15Â mg/L) and EC(50)2Â =Â 38.56Â mg/L (35.64-41.47Â mg/L) for the dark exposure conditions; b) EC(50)1Â =Â 1.65Â mg/L (0.00-4.74Â mg/L) and EC(50)2Â =Â 16.39Â mg/L (13.31-19.48Â mg/L) for the light/dark exposure conditions. The potential implication of agglomeration and sedimentation phenomena on ecotoxicological data was discussed.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Oceanography
Authors
Giovanni Libralato, Diego Minetto, Sara Totaro, Ivan MiÄetiÄ, Andrea Pigozzo, Enrico Sabbioni, Antonio Marcomini, Annamaria Volpi Ghirardini,