Background: NSAIDs are commonly used pharmaceuticals at worldwide level. Their wide consumption and limited removal through current practices of wastewater treatment plants has made them to easily reach environment. Concerns regarding their occurrence in water and soil environment is given by their potential ecotoxicological effects on living organisms at different trophic levels.Aims:The objective of this study was to assess the impact of common NSAIDs as ibuprofen, ketoprofen and diclofenac on soil microbiota (structure, abundance, metabolic activity) and related functions (enzymatic activity) in soil ecosystem services provision. Methods:Ibuprofen, ketoprofen and diclofenac were analyzed on GC-MS after derivatization with BSTFA and 1 % TMCS. Artificial exposure experiments with single and mixtures of Ibuprofen, ketoprofen and diclofenac, at different exposure concentrations (0.5 – 5 mg/kg), were performed with agricultural soils collected from Cluj county, Romania. Microbiota structure and abundance analysis was performed applying PLFA techniques. Microbiota metabolic activity was assessed with 31 sole carbon sources on 96-well Ecoplates. Results:Exposure of soil microbiota at 0.5 and 1 mg/kg at single NSAIDs for a period of 30 days has shown no changes in both structure and abundance. When soil samples were contaminated with mixture (1:1) of studied NSAIDs at the same concentration gram negative bacteria has inhibited development with 42 %, thus reducing it from 61.6 nmol/kg to approximately 25 nmol/kg. In experiments with exposure at higher doses (> 2.5 mg/kg) the average total bacteria abundance increased from 184.3 mg/kg at 236.4 mg/kg suggesting that microbiologically decomposed NSAIDs could serve as C source for some microorganism. Extracellular enzymatic activities as dehydrogenase activity decreased in all exposure experiments with about 6.2 % regardless of exposure dose, while acid-phosphatase increased with more than 28 %. Conclusions: Cumulative exposure of soil microbiota at mixture of NSAIDs changes their abundance and structure, influencing therefore soil functions.
Authors: Emoke Dalma Kovacs
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1289/isee.2020.virtual.p-0614
Publish Year: 2020
