Species-specific sensitivity of aquatic macrophytes towards two herbicide

Abstract

The s-triazine herbicide terbutylazine, an inhibitor of photosystem II, is often found in surface waters in concentrations <1 μg L −1, but concentrations up to 13 μg L −1 have been measured. To study the effect on the aquatic flora, we tested the sensitivity of 10 aquatic macrophyte species and a natural epiphyte community in a 2-week laboratory multispecies test at constant terbutylazine concentrations and two irradiance regimes. The data were described by a log-logistic concentration–response model and species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) were created from the EC 50 and EC 10 values. The 5% hazard concentration (HC 5) of the EC 10-based SSD for terbutylazine was 1 and 3 μg L −1; hence the low chronic terbutylazine concentrations measured in the environment are not likely to affect the macrophyte community. To compare the species sensitivity between different groups of herbicides, SSDs were constructed from a published study on the sulfonylurea metsulfuron-methyl, an inhibitor of acetolactate synthase. There was no correlation between species-specific sensitivity to the two herbicides; hence, the combined exposure of different herbicides might affect the macrophyte community more broadly rather than seriously affecting a few susceptible species. Evaluating the standard procedure of leaving at least a factor of 100 between the EC 50 of standard tests on Lemna sp. and the predicted environmental concentration seems to be protective for at least 95% of the macrophyte species for both terbutylazine and metsulfuron-methyl.