Fig 5. Ecotoxicity towards a microalga of eluates prepared from bioaugmented or non-bioaugmented soil microcosms.
The mean 72-h growth rate of Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata was determined in eluates prepared from soil collected at the indicated time periods (in days, d) from the microcosms contaminated with (A) fresh or (B) four month-aged Terbutilazina-Sapec (at 10× the recommended dose for weed control in corn cultivation) and subsequently bioaugmented (at day zero) with viable cells of Arthrobacter aurescens TC1 (added viable cells g-1 dry weight of soil, as follows: 5×107-A1, 2×108-A2, 8×107-B1, 8×108-B2). Ecotoxicity of eluates from soils microcosms non-contaminated with the herbicide (Ct-no TBA) or spiked but non-bioaugmented (CT-no bacteria) are also shown. Error bars represent + 1 standard deviation. * indicates means significantly different from clean soil (CT-no TBA) within each time (by Dunnett’s test).