Effects of oxytetracycline on the performance and activity of biomixtures: Removal of herbicides and mineralization of chlorpyrifos

Abstract

Biopurification systems (BPS) are design to remove pesticides from agricultural wastewater. This work assays for the first time the potential effect of an antibiotic of agricultural use (oxytetracycline, OTC) on the performance of a biomixture (biologically active core of BPS), considering that antibiotic-containing wastewaters are also produced in agricultural labors. The respiration of the biomixture was stimulated in the presence of increasing doses of OTC (≥100 mg kg−1), and only slightly increased with lower doses (≤10 mg kg−1). When co-applied during the removal of chlorpyrifos, OTC increased chlorpyrifos mineralization rates at low doses, resembling a hormetic effect. The biomixture was also able to remove three herbicides (atrazine, ametryn and linuron) with half-lives of 24.3 d, 43.9 d and 30.7 d; during co-application of OTC at a biomixture-relevant concentration, only the removal of ametryn was significantly inhibited, increasing its half-life to 92.4 d. Ecotoxicological assays revealed that detoxification takes place in the biomixture during the removal of herbicides in the presence of OTC. Overall results suggest that co-application of OTC in a biomixture does not negatively affect the performance of the matrix in every case; moreover, the co-application of this antibiotic could improve the mineralization of some pesticides.