Changes of atrazine dissipation and microbial community under coexistence of graphene oxide in river water

Abstract

The coexistence of herbicide atrazine (ATZ) and the nanomaterial graphene oxide (GO) in natural water bodies will be an inevitable scenario due to their widespread application and consequent release into aquatic ecosystems. But the dissipation of ATZ with GO and the response of the microbial community to their combination are still not clear. Here, we investigated the dissipation dynamics and transformation of ATZ with and without GO in river water after 21-d incubation. In the presence of GO, ATZ residue significantly decreased by 11%−43%; the transformation of ATZ markedly increased by 11%−17% when ATZ concentrations were not above 1.0 mg∙L–1. The direct adsorption of ATZ on GO, mainly via π–π interactions, proton transfer and hydrogen bonding, contributed 54%−68% of the total increased ATZ dissipation by GO. ATZ and ATZ+GO exerted effects of similar magnitude on microbial OTU numbers with an increase of bacterial diversity. The coexisting GO increased the relative abundance of ATZ-degradation bacteria and Chitinophagales, thus improving ATZ transformation. This work indicated that the coexistence of GO at environmentally relevant concentrations can effectively reduce ATZ residues and promote the transformation of ATZ to degradation products in river water; nevertheless, the potential risk of GO acting as an ATZ carrier should be given more prominence.