Biodegradation of chemicals tested in mixtures and individually: mixture effects on biodegradation kinetics and microbial composition

Abstract

All data generated during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files. Raw sequencing reads are available on GenBank (under BioProject PRJNA746252). Acknowledgments:The authors thank Global Product Compliance (GPC) for financial support, Roger Van-Egmond for useful comments and input on the manuscripts and Hanne Bøggild for technical assistance in the laboratory.

Technical guidance on biodegradation testing of difficult substances and mixtures in surface water

“…Test duration can be prolonged if extra test systems are prepared during test setup. It should however be noted that long test durations are less likely to reveal biodegradation kinetics that are relevant for the surface water of interest, since long lag phases may be caused by extensive adaptation of the microbial population [22 , 23] .…”

“…A higher impact of this is seen if inocula with low bacterial numbers are used compared with inocula with high bacterial numbers [5] . A higher impact is also seen for chemicals that need adaptation of the microbial consortia and thus have longer lag phases compared with chemicals that are immediately degraded in the test [22] .…”