Journal
CHEMOSPHERE
Volume 193, Issue -, Pages 24-31Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.014
Keywords
Avoidance; Contamination gradient; Guppy; Habitat disturbance; Non-forced exposure; Population isolation
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [IJCI-2014-19318]
- Ecology Department of the Institute of Biosciences, University of Sao Paulo
- CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel)
- European Fund for Economic and Regional Development (FEDER) from the Program Operational Factors of Competitiveness (COMPETE) project ReNATURE (Centro) [Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000007]
- national funds from the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology [SFRH/BPD/99800/2014]
- FAPESP (Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo) [14/22581-8]
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Information on how atrazine can affect the spatial distribution of organisms is non-existent. As this effect has been observed for some other contaminants, we hypothesized that atrazine-containing leachates/discharges could trigger spatial avoidance by the fish Poecilia reticulata and form a chemical barrier isolating upstream and downstream populations. Firstly, guppies were exposed to an atrazine gradient in a non-forced exposure system, in which organisms moved freely among the concentrations, to assess their ability to avoid atrazine. Secondly, a chemical barrier formed by atrazine, separating two clean habitats (extremities of the non-forced system), was simulated to assess whether the presence of the contaminant could prevent guppies from migrating to the other side of the system. Fish were able to avoid atrazine contamination at environmentally relevant concentrations (0.02 mu g L-1), below those described to cause sub-lethal effects. The AC(50) (atrazine concentration causing avoidance to 50% of the population) was 0.065 mu g L-1. The chemical barrier formed by atrazine at 150 mu g L-1 (concentration that should produce an avoidance around 82%) caused a reduction in the migratory potential of the fish by 47%; while the chemical barrier at 1058 mu g L-1 (concentration that produces torpidity) caused a reduction in the migratory potential of the fish by 91%. Contamination by atrazine, besides driving the spatial distribution of fish populations, has potential to act as a chemical barrier by isolating fish populations. This study includes a novel approach to be integrated in environmental risk assessment schemes to assess high-tier contamination effects such as habitat fragmentation and population displacement and isolation. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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