Insights into the ecotoxicity of nitrofurazone in marine ecosystems based on body-size spectra of periphytic ciliates

Abstract

In ecotoxicological studies, some biological responses known as biomarkers can be used as powerful tools to evaluate the ecotoxicity. In this study, we investigated the disparity of responses shown by body-size spectra of periphytic ciliate communities when used as biomarkers to detect the toxicity of the broad-spectrum veternary antibiotic nitrofurazone. Briefly, in chronic exposure experiments ciliate communities were exposed to different concentrations (0, 1, 2, 4 and 8 mg ml−1) of nitrofurazone. Relative Abundance of ciliates in all body-size categories decreased significantly, whereas their frequency of occurrence and probability densities showed hormetic-like responses in a dose dependent manner. Additionally, body-size distinctness indices were influenced by toxic stress and significantly departed from an expectation at higher nitrofurazone concentrations. Taken together, our results demonstrated that body-size spectra and body-size distinctness offered clear evidence of nitrofurazone toxicity in periphytic ciliates. Body-size spectra can therefore be used as a pivotal biomarker to determine the ecotoxicity of nitrofurazone in aquatic environments.