TY - JOUR
T1 - Co-occurring Environmental Stressors have Emerging Impacts on Sensory-Motor Behavior
AU - Suriyampola, Piyumika S.
AU - Lopez, Melissa
AU - Suárez-Rodríguez, Monserrat
AU - Ellsworth, Brontë E.
AU - Conroy-Ben, Otakuye
AU - Martins, Emília P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Anthropogenic activities often lead to alterations in the natural environment via multiple routes. Simultaneous occurrence of interacting environmental perturbations may influence animals via more complex pathways than when being exposed to environmental stressors discretely. In our study, we investigated the interactive effects of poor visual environment and exposure to an environmentally realistic concentration of a common contaminant on the behavior of larval zebrafish, Danio rerio. Specifically, we tested the sensory-motor behavior of zebrafish larvae by exposing them to low-light conditions and a low concentration of bisphenol-A (BPA) for 7 days postfertilization. We found that zebrafish exposed to both BPA and low-light conditions had significantly weaker response to a moving-visual cue. However, those exposed to only one of these treatments did not have altered response to visual cues. Since the response to a moving, visual cue involves locomotion, we also examined the distance they traveled as a proxy for activity level of individuals across treatments. However, the distance traveled by individuals did not significantly differ across treatments, suggesting that the differences in response are linked to visual sensory pathways. Here, we emphasize that the adverse effects of environmental stressors, particularly of those that occur at environmentally relevant concentrations, may emerge only when they co-occur with another environmental stressor. These findings highlight the need to incorporate multiple environmental stressors to comprehensively assess impacts that human activities have on behavioral strategies of animals.
AB - Anthropogenic activities often lead to alterations in the natural environment via multiple routes. Simultaneous occurrence of interacting environmental perturbations may influence animals via more complex pathways than when being exposed to environmental stressors discretely. In our study, we investigated the interactive effects of poor visual environment and exposure to an environmentally realistic concentration of a common contaminant on the behavior of larval zebrafish, Danio rerio. Specifically, we tested the sensory-motor behavior of zebrafish larvae by exposing them to low-light conditions and a low concentration of bisphenol-A (BPA) for 7 days postfertilization. We found that zebrafish exposed to both BPA and low-light conditions had significantly weaker response to a moving-visual cue. However, those exposed to only one of these treatments did not have altered response to visual cues. Since the response to a moving, visual cue involves locomotion, we also examined the distance they traveled as a proxy for activity level of individuals across treatments. However, the distance traveled by individuals did not significantly differ across treatments, suggesting that the differences in response are linked to visual sensory pathways. Here, we emphasize that the adverse effects of environmental stressors, particularly of those that occur at environmentally relevant concentrations, may emerge only when they co-occur with another environmental stressor. These findings highlight the need to incorporate multiple environmental stressors to comprehensively assess impacts that human activities have on behavioral strategies of animals.
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U2 - 10.1093/icb/icab122
DO - 10.1093/icb/icab122
M3 - Article
C2 - 34086909
AN - SCOPUS:85118097465
SN - 1540-7063
VL - 61
SP - 1191
EP - 1201
JO - Integrative and comparative biology
JF - Integrative and comparative biology
IS - 3
ER -