RhizoFlowCell system reveals early effects of micropollutants on aquatic plant rhizosphere

In aquatic systems, one of the non-destructive ways to quantify toxicity of contaminants to plants is to monitor changes in root exudation patterns. In aquatic conditions, monitoring and quantifying such changes are currently challenging because of dilution of root exudates in water phase and lack of suitable instrumentation to measure them. Exposure to pollutants would not only change the plant exudation, but also affect the microbial communities that surround the root zone, thereby changing the metabolic profiles of the rhizosphere. This study aims at developing a device, the RhizoFlowCell, which can quantify metabolic response of plants, as well as changes in the microbial communities, to give an estimate of the stress to which the rhizosphere is exposed. The usefulness of RhizoFlowCell is demonstrated using naphthalene as a test pollutant. Results show that RhizoFlowCell system is useful in quantifying the dynamic metabolic response of aquatic rhizosphere to determine ecosystem health.