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USING ROTIFER POPULATION DEMOGRAPHIC PARAMETERS TO ASSESS IMPACTS OF THE DEGRADATION PRODUCTS FROM TRINITROTOLUENE PHYTOREMEDIATION
Citation:
Hitchcock, D. R., S C. McCutcheon, AND M. C. Smith. USING ROTIFER POPULATION DEMOGRAPHIC PARAMETERS TO ASSESS IMPACTS OF THE DEGRADATION PRODUCTS FROM TRINITROTOLUENE PHYTOREMEDIATION. ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 55(2):143-151, (2003).
Impact/Purpose:
Elucidate and model the underlying processes (physical, chemical, enzymatic, biological, and geochemical) that describe the species-specific transformation and transport of organic contaminants and nutrients in environmental and biological systems. Develop and integrate chemical behavior parameterization models (e.g., SPARC), chemical-process models, and ecosystem-characterization models into reactive-transport models.
Description:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the aquatic chronic lethal and sublethal toxicity effects from the phytoremediation of water contaminated with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (2,4,6-TNT) by the wetland plant species Myriophyllum aquaticum (parrot feather). Rotifers (Brachionus calyciflorus) fed with an algal species (Nannochloropsis spp.) were used as aquatic test populations. Continuous flow laboratory microcosms were used to determine effects on rotifer populations by 2,4,6-TNT and the primary degradation product amino-dinitrotoluene (ADNT) during and after phytoremediation. Rotifer demographic parameters from life tables, including survivorship, fecundity, reproductive values, net reproductive rate, generation time, intrinsic growth rate, and life expectancy, were used as measures of treatment effects. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses were performed to determine nitroaromatic concentrations. Results from this study show significant differences in rotifer demographic parameters between microcosms with elevated initial 2,4,6-TNT concentrations. Significant differences in demographic parameters also existed between microcosms that did and did not receive phytoremediation treatment and control microcosms. This study shows that TNT phytoremediation via artificial wetlands may not only clean up hazardous waste at munitions sites, but also encourage the growth of aquatic populations such as rotifers.