Toxicity and accumulation of silver nanoparticles during development of the marine polychaete Platynereis dumerilii Javier García-Alonso a,b, ⁎, Neus Rodriguez-Sanchez a,1 , Superb K. Misra c,2 , Eugenia Valsami-Jones c,2 , Marie-Noële Croteau d , Samuel N. Luoma d,e , Philip S. Rainbow a a Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK b Biodiversity Group, Centro Universitario Regional Este, Maldonado, Uruguay c Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK d U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA e John Muir Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA HIGHLIGHTS • Differential effects under adverse environmental conditions occur at different life stages. • Metal-based nanoparticles with different toxic properties are released into the aquatic environment. • Life stage and tolerance to Ag are correlated in Platynereis dumerilii. • Exposure experiments at the larval level contribute to realistic eco-toxicological studies. abstract article info Article history: Received 25 November 2013 Received in revised form 10 January 2014 Accepted 11 January 2014 Available online xxxx Keywords: Developmental toxicity Silver nanoparticles Polychaetes Trace metals Pollutants affecting species at the population level generate ecological instability in natural systems. The success of early life stages, such as those of aquatic invertebrates, is highly affected by adverse environmental conditions. Silver released into the environment from emerging nanotechnology represents such a threat. Sediments are sinks for numerous pollutants, which aggregate and/or associate with depositing suspended particles. Deposit feeder such as the annelid Platynereis dumerilii, which has a large associated literature on its development, is an excellent model organism for exposure studies in coastal environments. We exposed eggs, larvae, juveniles and adults of P. dumerilii to various concentrations of citrate (cit-Ag NPs) or humic acid (HA-Ag NPs) capped sil- ver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) as well to dissolved Ag (added as AgNO 3 ). We showed that mortality and abnormal development rate increased with younger life stages. While adults and juvenile were the most tolerant life stages, fertilized eggs were highly sensitive to AgNO 3 , cit-Ag NPs and HA-Ag NPs. Exposures to HA-Ag NPs triggered the highest cute toxicity responses in P. dumerilii and in most cases both Ag NPs were more toxic than AgNO 3 . Uptake rate of HA-Ag NPs in adult worms was also higher than from other Ag forms, consistent with toxicity to other life stages. The early stages of the life cycle of marine coastal organisms are more affected by Ag NPs than the juvenile or adult life stages, indicating that exposure experiments at the larval level contribute to realistic eco- toxicological studies in aquatic environments. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Most of the invertebrate fauna in estuarine and marine environments shows external fertilization with free-living larval stages. The robustness of organisms to cope with natural environmental fluctuations typically increases during development. In addition, larval stages are often exposed to toxic contaminants that can affect their vulnerability, interfering with growth, sexual development and survival (Hamdoun and Epel, 2007). As a result, the number of individuals that reach adulthood and their sexual fitness in broadcast spawning species such as the polychaete Platynereis dumerilii might depend on the stress exposure that they suf- fered during larval development. Emerging nanotechnologies are adding new environmental risks. Nanoparticles (NPs) are being increasingly used in diverse industrial applications to improve life quality. However, this novel industrial rev- olution may lead to negative implications. For instance, several types of Science of the Total Environment 476–477 (2014) 688–695 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Biodiversity Group, Centro Universitario Regional Este, Universidad de la República, Burnett street, 20000 Maldonado-Punta del Este, Uruguay. Tel./fax: +598 42 236595. E-mail address: jgalonso@cure.edu.uy (J. García-Alonso). 1 Present address: School of Pharmacy and Chemistry, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK. 2 Present address: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. 0048-9697/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.01.039 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv