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Toxicity of Alkyllead Salts to Anaerobic Nitrogen Transformations in Sediment

Dep. of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry and Microbiology, Macdonald College of McGill Univ., 21111 Lakeshore Road, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 1C0.

^* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Four alkyllead chlorides (Me₃PbCl, Me₂PbCl₂, Et₃PbCl, Et₂PbCl₂; Me = CH₃, Et = C₂H₅) were separately tested (at 0.1, 1.0, 5.0, and 10.0 µg L^–1) for their inhibitory properties against denitrification and N₂ fixation in a lake sediment as determined by acetylene blockage and acetylene reduction techniques. In the presence of added nitrate, glucose, and acetylene, alkyllead salts only moderately inhibited nitrous oxide, ethylene, and carbon dioxide accumulation by whole slurry incubations. These effects were more pronounced in supernatant from sediment. In general, ethylleads were more toxic than methyllead salts and dialkylleads were more inhibitory than their trialkyl homologs to these transformations. Successive incubations indicated that microbes adapted to the presence of these toxicants, a phenomenon also observed with other heavy metals. At the highest concentrations, which have been reported in sediments, no serious hazard to N transformations exists.

Contribution from the Dep. of Food Sci. and Agric. Chem. and Microbiol., Macdonald College.

This work was supported by grants G0316 and A6687 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Received for publication June 25, 1987.