Sub‐lethal effects of metals and pesticides on the freshwater dinoflagellate <i>Palatinus apiculatus</i> and environmental implications

Microalgae are unicellular, photosynthetic organisms in aquatic environments and are sensitive to water quality and contaminants. While green algae and diatoms are widely used for toxicity assessments, there is a relatively limited amount of toxicity data available for freshwater dinoflagellates. Here, we evaluated the sub-lethal effects of the metals Cu, Cr, Ni, and Zn and the herbicides atrazine and S-metolachlor on the freshwater dinoflagellate Palatinus apiculatus. Based on the 72-h median effective concentration (EC₅₀), P. apiculatus showed sensitive responses to metals in the order of Cu (0.052 mg L^-1), Cr (0.085 mg L^-1), Zn (0.098 mg L^-1), and Ni (0.13 mg L^-1). Among the tested herbicides, P. apiculatus was more sensitive to atrazine (0.0048 mg L^-1) than S-metolachlor (0.062 mg L^-1). In addition, we observed morphological alterations and significant increases in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in cells exposed to 0.05 mg L^-1 of Cu and 0.005 mg L^-1 of atrazine. These indicated that metals and pesticides induced oxidative stress in cellular metabolic processes and consequently caused severe physiological damage to the cells. Our results provide baseline data on the toxic effects of typical environmental contaminants on freshwater dinoflagellate, suggesting that P. apiculatus could be used as a bioindicator in freshwater toxicity assessments. PRACTITIONER POINTS: The sub-lethal effects of metals and pesticides on the freshwater dinoflagellate Palatinus apiculatus were evaluated. Palatinus sensitively responded to metals and pesticides; of test chemicals, atrazine (0.0048 mg L^-1 of EC50) was the most sensitive. Metals and pesticides induced oxidative stress and consequently caused severe physiological damage to the Palatinus cells. The freshwater dinoflagellate Palatinus can be used as a bioindicator in freshwater toxicity assessments.