Due to specific physical properties, hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is assigned to the powerful technologies for treating the biotic contamination in water including cyanobacteria. Contaminated water stream (CWS) can be cavitated directly by passing through some HC device, or indirectly when high-pressure jet stream (HPJS) is directed against its flow. Relatively small HPJS stream can thus treat a big volume of CWS in a short time or even work in continuous mode. Cyanobacteria floating in the CWS are forced to flow through the mixing cavitation zone. Within 2 h after single HC treatment, cyanobacterial cell suspensions showed disintegration of larger colonies and enhanced biomass sedimentation. Additional pre-treatment of CWS with low amounts of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2; 33, 66 and 99 μmol/L) enhanced the effect of HC and led to further inhibition of cyanobacterial photosynthesis (maximum quantum yield of photosystem II decreased by up to 60%). The number of cyanobacterial cells in the treated CWS decreased continuously over 48 and 72 h, though some cells remained alive and were able to recover photosynthetic activity. The technique proposed (direction of a HPJS against a CWS and pre-treatment with low H2O2 concentrations) provides (i) effective removal of cells from the water column, and (ii) reduced contamination by organic compounds released from the cells (especially cyanotoxins) as the cell membranes are not destroyed and the cells remain alive. This process shows potential as an effective pre-treatment step in water purification processes related to cyanobacterial contamination.

• MeSH
• Water Purification * MeSH
• Hydrodynamics MeSH
• Organic Chemicals MeSH
• Hydrogen Peroxide MeSH
• Cyanobacteria * MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Graphene oxide (GO) as the most studied hydrophilic graphene derivative can be deployed in a broad spectrum of environmental technologies opening the issue of its ecotoxicity. Nevertheless, the information about its behavior in complex aquatic environment is still not sufficient. Here, we studied the interaction of three differently oxidized GO systems with planktonic and benthic crustaceans. By standard toxicity tests, we observed the importance of feeding strategy as well as the surface oxidation of GO with respect to GO's ecotoxicity. However, to gain a clearer insight into GO's environmental fate, we introduced a pre-treatment with algae as the most common source of food for crustaceans. Such an adjustment mimicking the conditions in real aquatic ecosystems resulted in complete mitigation of acute toxicity of GOs to all organisms and, more importantly, to the eradication of oxidative stress caused by GOs. We argue, that the pre-exposition of food is a crucial factor in GO's overall environmental fate, even though this fact has been completely neglected in recent studies. These experiments proved that GO is not a hazardous material in complex aquatic environments because its acute toxicity can be successfully mitigated through the interaction with algae even at very high concentrations (25 mg/L).

• MeSH
• Water Pollutants, Chemical * toxicity   MeSH
• Ecosystem MeSH
• Graphite * toxicity   MeSH
• Plankton MeSH
• Toxicity Tests MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Cyanobacteria pose a serious threat to water resources around the world. This is compounded by the fact that they are extremely resilient, having evolved numerous protective mechanisms to ensure their dominant position in their ecosystem. We show that treatment with nanoparticles of zerovalent iron (nZVI) is an effective and environmentally benign method for destroying and preventing the formation of cyanobacterial water blooms. The nanoparticles have multiple modes of action, including the removal of bioavailable phosphorus, the destruction of cyanobacterial cells, and the immobilization of microcystins, preventing their release into the water column. Ecotoxicological experiments showed that nZVI is a highly selective agent, having an EC(50) of 50 mg/L against cyanobacteria; this is 20-100 times lower than its EC(50) for algae, daphnids, water plants, and fishes. The primary product of nZVI treatment is nontoxic and highly aggregated Fe(OH)(3), which promotes flocculation and gradual settling of the decomposed cyanobacterial biomass.

• MeSH
• Araceae drug effects   growth & development   MeSH
• Water Purification methods   MeSH
• Daphnia drug effects   physiology   MeSH
• Sinapis drug effects   growth & development   MeSH
• Plant Roots drug effects   growth & development   MeSH
• Metal Nanoparticles toxicity   MeSH
• Water Pollutants analysis   MeSH
• Plant Leaves drug effects   growth & development   MeSH
• Microcystis drug effects   growth & development   MeSH
• Water Microbiology MeSH
• Microcystins analysis   MeSH
• Scenedesmus drug effects   growth & development   MeSH
• Iron toxicity   MeSH
• Poecilia MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH