Benthic diatom growth kinetics under combined pressures of microalgal competition, predation and chemical stressors.

Pesticides are increasingly used worldwide to protect crops. However, only a small fraction of pesticides really hit their target organisms, with the remaining fraction reaching the environment by several phenomena such as leaching, and ending up in aquatic ecosystems: the final receptor of micropollutants. Chemical stressors induce changes in taxonomic composition of fauna and flora which are now the focus of many biomonitoring studies. Interspecific competition and predation are structuring factors of community composition. But the combined effects of biotic relationships (competition, predation) and pesticides are rarely accounted for.