NanoToX · Does climate change enhance the nanoparticle toxicity of freshwater biofilms?

Does climate change enhance the nanoparticle toxicity of freshwater biofilms?

Aquatic ecosystems are threatened by multiple environmental stressors including pollutants and climate change. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the environmental impact of many stressors in recent years, yet new, potentially powerful toxicants such as engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) continue to emerge and their widespread use ensures they reach aquatic systems wherein their effects remain poorly understood. The release of ENPs into the environment is accelerating, and as the global climate warms, the combined effects of both stressors (ENP + temperature increase) could have significant consequences for aquatic life. As a major step towards understanding the climate change-enhanced environmental impacts of ENPs in aquatic ecosystems, the NanoToX project focused on investigating the responses of fluvial biofilms - microbial communities that drive aquatic primary production and respiration and thus, control nutrient conditions and water quality - as key points of ENP entry into aquatic food webs. The goal of the NanoToX project was to elucidate how much river warming will affect fluvial biofilms at molecular, functional and structural levels, and how the presence of environmental concentrations of ENPs may further stress the communities. This objective was achieved through an innovative, interdisciplinary approach using an array of methods from the fields of ecotoxicology (ecology and toxicology), molecular, functional ecology and nanotechnology. Project results are providing and will provide valuable information to underpin current updates to European legislation, ENP industry and will address social challenges relating to water security and climate change. Importantly, the research outputs are also contributing to one of the major priorities of the European research agenda, which, focuses on understanding interactions between climate, emergent pollutants (ENP), fluvial ecosystems and human activities in order to address environmental change issues in an integrated way (WFD 2000/60/EC). European society will benefit from new and relevant information regarding aquatic systems health (currently and in the future) through detecting the potential combined risk of ENP and TºC, and improving risk assessment/management and water quality of our rivers from where water is taken for several activities (e.g. drinking-water and industrial activities) and where a large number of recreational activities occur (e.g. fishing, sports).

Data: CORDIS, © European Union