Using meiobenthic taxa, nematofauna biological traits, and bacterial abundance to assess the effects of the polybrominated diphenyl ethers compound: Case study of tetrabromo diphenyl ether BDE-47

Ahmed Nasri; Amel Hannachi; Mohamed Allouche; Badreddine Barhoumi; Taha Barkaoui; Aymen Wahbi; Fabio D'Agostino; Ezzeddine Mahmoudi; Hamouda Beyrem; Fehmi Boufahja

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145251

Using meiobenthic taxa, nematofauna biological traits, and bacterial abundance to assess the effects of the polybrominated diphenyl ethers compound: Case study of tetrabromo diphenyl ether BDE-47

Sci Total Environ. 2021 May 20:770:145251. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145251. Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Environment Biomonitoring, University of Carthage, Faculty of Sciences of Bizerta (FSB), 7021 Zarzouna, Bizerta, Tunisia. Electronic address: ahmed.nasri@fsb.u-carthage.tn.
² Laboratory of Environment Biomonitoring, University of Carthage, Faculty of Sciences of Bizerta (FSB), 7021 Zarzouna, Bizerta, Tunisia.
³ Laboratory of Hetero-Organic Compounds and Nanostructured Materials (LR18ES11), Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, University of Carthage, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia.
⁴ Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science of Bizerta, Bizerta, Tunisia.
⁵ Institute for the Study of Anthropogenic Impacts and Sustainability in the Marine Environment of Council National of Research (CNR-IAS), Italy.

PMID: 33508666
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145251

Abstract

Trophic web structuring in aquatic sediments is dependent on the biological interactions between metazoans and microbial communities. The presence of pollutants in these biotas can therefore impact the meiofauna structure via the modification of the microbial communities. The current study examined in a laboratory bioassay the response of meiobenthic communities, particularly marine nematode taxa from the Bizerte Lagoon to the effect of the most detected polybrominated diphenyl ether in this aquatic environment, BDE-47. Four doses [D1 (2.5 ppb Dry weight (DW)), D2 (25 ppb DW), D3 (50 ppb DW), and D4 (100 ppb DW)] were gradually applied and sediment microcosms were incubated for 30 days in the presence or absence of meiofauna. Our results show that BDE-47-enriched sediments decreased the meiofaunal taxa and bacterial abundance. A lower taxonomic diversity of the nematodes' general structure was observed with all doses used. The numerical analysis of the two dimensional (2D) non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) plots and the evolution of the relative abundances of each functional group of nematode genus assemblages revealed that the abundance of all biological traits was modified. Nevertheless, only three of the functional traits, adult length, feeding group, and amphid shape, showed a clear difference between the control and the treated microcosms. The similarity percentage analysis (SIMPER) revealed that the average dissimilarity between nematode genera communities and biological traits increased with BDE-47-enriched sediments. The nMDS second-stage ordination of inter-matrix rank correlations for matrices including genera and biological traits showed that the amphid shape was the functional trait closest to the generic distribution. Finally, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for the nematode biological traits and bacteria indicated a positive correlation of these microbes with the functional groups [1A, Cr, and ef], and a negative correlation only with the "cla"-type tail shape.

Keywords: BDE-47 sediment enrichment; Biological traits; Meiobenthic organisms; Nematofauna genera; Population response.

MeSH terms

Animals
Bacteria
Geologic Sediments
Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / analysis
Nematoda*
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers
Water Pollutants, Chemical
2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether