New Insights into Dose- and Time-Dependent Response of Five Typical PPCPs on Soil Microbial Respiration

The widespread use of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) has attracted much attention and the impact of PPCPs on indigenous microbial communities has become increasingly important in recent days. Five common PPCPs, including doxycycline (DOX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), triclocarban (TCC), carbamazepine (CBZ), and sulfadimidine (SMZ), were selected and their effects on soil microbial respiration were studied at concentrations of 0, 0.2, 1, 5, 25 and 50 mg/kg. The results of this study indicate that the effect of five common PPCPs on soil microbial respiration was dose- and time- dependent. At low concentrations (0.2 and 1 mg/kg), CBZ and SMZ exhibited an activation effect on microbial soil respiration at 1 day (58.02%, 26.39% and 1.54%, 1.76% at 0.2 and 1 mg/kg respectively), while DOX showed inhibition for all tested concentrations at 1 day of incubation. At high concentrations (25 and 50 mg/kg) CIP and SMZ showed an inhibitory effect (− 69.13%, − 80.86% for 25 and 50 mg/kg, respectively), while TCC and CBZ exhibited stimulatory effect (38.07%, 9.64% and 4.06%, 12.18% at 25 and 50 mg/kg, respectively) at 1 day of incubation. Our findings indicate that the effect of tested PPCPs on soil microbial respiration had an inhibitory or stimulatory effect based on the dose and extent of time.