Ocean acidification and increasing discharges of pharmaceutical contaminants into aquatic systems are among key and/or emerging drivers of environmental change affecting marine ecosystems. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that ocean acidification can have direct and indirect impacts on marine organisms although combined effects with other stressors, namely with pharmaceuticals, have received very little attention to date.
The present study aimed to evaluate the impacts of the pharmaceutical drug Carbamazepine and pH 7.1, acting alone and in combination, on the clam Scrobicularia plana. For this, a long-term exposure (28 days) was conducted and a set of oxidative stress markers was investigated. The results obtained showed that S. plana was able to develop mechanisms to prevent oxidative damage when under low pH for a long period, presenting higher survival when exposed to this stressor compared to CBZ or the combination of CBZ with pH 7.1. Furthermore, the toxicity of CBZ on S. plana was synergistically increased under ocean acidification conditions (CBZ + pH 7.1): specimens survival was reduced and oxidative stress was enhanced when compared to single exposures. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that ocean acidification will act to increase the toxicity of CBZ to marine organisms, which has clear implications for coastal benthic ecosystems suffering chronic pollution from pharmaceutical drugs.
Freitas R., Almeida A., Calisto V., Velez C., Moreira A., Schneider R. J., Esteves V. I., Wrona F. J., Figueira E. & Soares A. M. V. M., 2016. The impacts of pharmaceutical drugs under ocean acidification: New data on single and combined long-term effects of carbamazepine on Scrobicularia plana. Science of The Total Environment 541:977–985. Article (subscription required).
