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SUMMARY1. This review focuses on direct and indirect interactions between dissolved humic substances (HS) and freshwater organisms and presents novel opinions and hypotheses on their ecological significance. Despite their abundance in freshwaters, the role of HS is still inadequately understood. These substances have been considered too large to be taken up by freshwater organisms. On the contrary, here we present evidence that dissolved HS are indeed taken up and interact directly and/or indirectly with freshwater organisms. 2. We show that dissolved HS exert a mild chemical stress upon aquatic organisms in many ways; they induce molecular chaperones (stress shock proteins), induce and modulate biotransformation enzymes and modulate (mainly inhibiting) the photosynthetic release of oxygen by freshwater plants. Furthermore, they produce an oxidative stress, which may lead to membrane oxidation. HS modulate the multixenobiotic resistance activity and probably other membrane-bound pumps. This property may lead to the increased bioaccumulation of xenobiotic chemicals. Furthermore, they can modulate the numbers of offspring in a nematode and feminise fish and amphibians. The ecological consequences of this potential remain obscure at present. HS also have the potential to act as chemical attractants (as shown with a nematode). 3. In some macrophytes and algae we show that HS interfere with photosynthesis and growth. For instance, the presence of HS suppresses cyanobacteria more than eukaryotic algae. By applying a quantitative structure activity relationship approach, we show that quinones in the HS interfere with photosynthetic electron transport. We show that even Phragmites leachate can act as a kind of phytotoxin. HS also have the potential to suppress fungal growth, as shown with the water mould Saprolegnia parasitica and force the fungus to respond by spore production. 4. In very soft, humic freshwaters, such as the Rio Negro, Brazil, HS stimulate the uptake of essential ions, such as Na and Ca, at extremely low pH (3.5-4.0) and prevent the ionoregulatory disturbance induced by acid waters, thereby enabling fish to survive in these environments. 5. We discuss whether or not HS are directly utilised by aquatic microorganisms or via exoenzymes, which may be washed in from the terrestrial catchment. There is accumulating evidence that the quality of the HS controls microbial growth. In total, netheterotrophy may result from HS-mediated suppression of primary production by the quinone structures and/or from HS-mediated support of microbial growth. As there is also evidence that HS have the potential to support photoautotrophic growth and suppress microbial growth, the opposite community effect could result. Consequently, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) has to be chemically characterised, rather than simply measuring bulk DOC concentration. 6. In sum, dissolved HS interact with freshwater organisms in a variety of ways in unenriched humic lakes. In addition to the well known effects of HS on light regime, for exampl...

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The singlet oxygen (1(O2)) luminescence of 27 isolated humic substances (HS), natural organic matter, ultrafiltrates, and the synthetic fulvic acid HS1500 has been investigated by time-resolved spectroscopy in buffered D(2)O. The samples include both reverse osmosis isolates from lakes in Scandinavia, Canada, and Germany, and IHSS fulvic and humic acids of aquatic and terrestrial origin. The quantum yields of 1(O2) formation (PhiDelta) obtained on laser excitation at 480 nm ranged between 0.06 (HS1500) and 2.7%(fulvic acid from soil, IHSS). In our study, a general trend towards higher PhiDelta in terrestrial HS was observed. The comparison of reverse osmosis isolates from surface waters collected during fall 1999 and spring 2000 from five Scandinavian sites yielded, in all cases, higher PhiDelta for the spring samples. For the aquatic sampling sites Hietajarvi and Birkenes, PhiDelta even exceeded values of 0.6%, which were found to be typical for terrestrial or soil water material. Investigation of the excitation wavelength dependence of PhiDelta in the spectral range 355-550 nm yielded different spectral shapes for aquatic HS and "non-aquatic" HS, respectively. On the basis of these excitation spectra, 1(O2) production rates were calculated for eight representative HS.

Fractions of methylated naphthenic acids (NAs) isolated from oil sands process-affected waterwere collected utilizing Kugelrohr distillation and analyzed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy. 1H NMR analysis revealed that the ratio of methyl ester hydrogen atoms to remaining aliphatic hydrogen atoms increased from 0.130 to 0.214, from the lowest to the greatest molecular weight (MW) fractions, respectively, indicating that the carboxylic acid content increased with greater MW. Acute toxicity assays with exposure to monocarboxyl NA-like surrogates demonstrated that toxicity increased with increasing MW (D. magna LC50 values of 10 +/- 1.3 mM and 0.59 +/- 0.20 mM for the respective lowest and highest MW NA-like surrogates); however, with the addition of a second carboxylic acid moiety, the toxicity was significantly reduced (D. magna LC50 values of 10 +/- 1.3 mM and 27 +/- 2.2 mM forthe respective monocarboxyl and dicarboxyl NA-like surrogates of similar MW). Increased carboxylic acid content within NA structures of higher MW decreases hydrophobicity and, consequently, offers a plausible explanation as to why lower MW NAs in oil sands process-affected water are more toxic than the greater MW NAs.