Chemical communication in wood frog (Rana sylvatica) tadpoles is influenced by early-life exposure to naphthenic acid fraction compounds.

Autor: Elvidge CK; Department of Biology, Queen's University, 116 Barrie Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada. Electronic address: chris.k.elvidge@gmail.com., Robinson CE; Department of Biology, Queen's University, 116 Barrie Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada., Caza RA; Department of Biology, Queen's University, 116 Barrie Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada., Hewitt LM; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Frank RA; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Orihel DM; Department of Biology, Queen's University, 116 Barrie Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada; School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University, 116 Barrie Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Aquatic toxicology (Amsterdam, Netherlands) [Aquat Toxicol] 2023 Apr; Vol. 257, pp. 106435. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 18.
DOI: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2023.106435
Abstrakt: Environmental pollutants can disrupt chemical communication between aquatic organisms by interfering with the production, transmission, and/or detection of, as well as responses to, chemical cues. Here, we test the hypothesis that early-life exposure to naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs) from oil sands tailings disrupts antipredator-associated chemical communication in larval amphibians. Wild adult wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) captured during their natural breeding period were combined (1 female:2 males) in six replicate mesocosms filled with either uncontaminated lakewater or with NAFCs isolated from an active tailings pond in Alberta, Canada, at nominal 5 mg/L concentrations. Egg clutches were incubated and tadpoles maintained in their respective mesocosms for ∼40 days post-hatch. Tadpoles (Gosner stage 25-31) were then transferred individually to trial arenas filled with uncontaminated water and exposed to one of six chemical alarm cue (AC) stimuli solutions following a 3 × 2 × 2 design (3 AC types × 2 stimulus carriers × 2 rearing exposure groups). Relative to control tadpoles, NAFC-exposed tadpoles demonstrated higher baseline activity levels (line crosses and direction changes) when introduced to uncontaminated water. Antipredator responses differed in graded fashion with AC type, with control ACs eliciting the greatest latency to resume activity, water the least, and NAFC-exposed ACs intermediate. Pre- to post-stimulus difference scores were non-significant in control tadpoles, while NAFC-exposed tadpoles demonstrated significantly greater variation. While this suggests that exposure to NAFCs from fertilization through hatching may have interfered with AC production, it is unclear whether the quality or quantity of cues was affected. There was also no clear evidence that NAFC carrier water interfered with ACs or the alarm response in unexposed control tadpoles. These results emphasize the importance of understanding how behavioral and physiological effects of early-life NAFC exposure on critical antipredator responses may persist across life history stages.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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