The effects of exposure to sub-lethal levels of silver nanoparticles on short-term filteration rate in Dressina poly morpha

The filtration rate is one of the physiological indices in bivalves that indicates the degree of the effectiveness of the filtration function in exposure to contaminants. In this study, the changes in filtration rate of Dressina poly morpha were investigated after 7 and 14 days of exposure to silver nanoparticles. Bivalves were removed from the natural environment and transferred to the laboratory. The distribution of nanoparticles in water tanks was tested with the DLS device. Bivalves were exposed to concentrations of 0.25, 2.5 and 25 ppm of nanoparticles for 14 days. The results showed the highest filtration rate for the control group (96 ± 47.74 ml min-1 g-1DW). On day 7, the highest filtration rate was observed in the first treatment (88.58 ± 64.38 ml min-1 g-1DW) and the lowest filtration rate was observed in treatment 3 (47.67 ± 11.81) ml min-1 g-1DW), no significant difference was observed in the filtration rate betwen first treatment and control (P >0.05), but the filtration rate in the third treatment was significantly (P <0.05) lower than that of the other treatments and the control group. Moreover, the filtration rate on day 14 showed similar differences to day 7, but more significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that filtration rate changes are a good indicator for nanoparticles contamination.