Low Concentrations of Glyphosate-Based Herbicide Affects the Development of Chironomus xanthus
Glyphosate is an herbicide commonly used worldwide for weed control and generally applied as part of a formulated product, such as Roundup. Contamination of surface water by glyphosate-based herbicides can cause deleterious effects in organisms, mainly in aquatic systems near to intensive agricultur...
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Published in | Water, air, and soil pollution Vol. 228; no. 10; p. 1 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Cham
Springer International Publishing
01.10.2017
Springer Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Glyphosate is an herbicide commonly used worldwide for weed control and generally applied as part of a formulated product, such as Roundup. Contamination of surface water by glyphosate-based herbicides can cause deleterious effects in organisms, mainly in aquatic systems near to intensive agricultural areas (e.g., transgenic soybean crops). Given the lack of toxicological information concerning effects of glyphosate-based herbicides on tropical aquatic ecosystems, we aimed to evaluate the lethal and sub-lethal effects of Roundup Original® on the dipteran
Chironomus xanthus
. The endpoints evaluated included survival, growth, and emergence. The results showed that the 48 h LC
50
for glyphosate to
C. xanthus
was 251.5 mg a.e./L. Larval growth of
C. xanthus
was reduced under glyphosate exposure (LOEC for body length = 12.06 mg/L; LOEC for head capsule width = 0.49 mg/L). No effects were observed in terms of cumulative percentage of imagoes emergence. However, low concentrations of glyphosate caused delayed emergence of females (at 1.53 mg/L) and induced fast emergence of males (at 0.49 mg/L), compared to control treatment. The deleterious effects of environmental relevant concentrations of glyphosate (0.7 mg/L) observed in terms of
C. xanthus
growth and development suggest that glyphosate-based herbicides can have negative consequences for aquatic non-target invertebrates such as Chironomus. Multigerational assays are needed to assess the long term effects of glyphosate on
C. xanthus
populations. Finally, our study adds ecotoxicological data on the effects of glyphosate-based herbicides on tropical freshwater invertebrates. |
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ISSN: | 0049-6979 1573-2932 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11270-017-3536-9 |