engleski

Taxon specific bioaccumulation and transfer of contaminants from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems

Considering a large number of different chemicals that are detected in freshwaters worldwide, as well as complexity of predicting individual impact of these chemicals on aquatic biota, current knowledge is insufficient to fully understand the fate and behavior of emerging contaminants in aquatic ecosystems. Certain pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds can be transferred from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems through food webs and emergence of aquatic insects. Therefore, emerging contaminants potentially endanger not only aquatic, but also terrestrial organisms. Hence, in our research we compared concentrations of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds measured in aquatic nymphs and terrestrial adults of two Odonata suborders: Anisoptera and Zygoptera, sampled from a wastewater impacted river. We also calculated the bioaccumulation and bioamplification factors (BAFs & BAmFs) in order to determine accumulation potential of detected compounds as well as possible changes of compound concentrations between different insect life stages. Results show similar trends in total concentrations of emerging contaminants and individual compound concentrations for both observed taxa groups, being mostly higher in nymphs compared to adults. BAF values indicate the existence of notable differences on the suborder level, as values for six compounds are significantly higher in Zygoptera compared to Anisoptera. Furthermore, we confirmed bioamplification for two compounds in both Odonata suborders. Our results suggest that ecological traits like dispersal and feeding behavior of aquatic insects have an important contribution on bioaccumulation and bioamplification of emerging contaminants, but also highlight necessity for conducting further taxon- and trait-specific research.

emerging contaminants ; bioaccumulation ; bioamplification ; Odonata

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