Open AccessWarmer temperatures limit the effects of antidepressant pollution on life-history traits
Author(s) -
Lucinda C Aulsebrook,
Bob B. M. Wong,
Matthew D. Hall
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings - royal society. biological sciences/proceedings - royal society. biological sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.342
H-Index - 253
eISSN - 1471-2954
pISSN - 0962-8452
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.2021.2701
Subject(s) - daphnia magna , fecundity , pollutant , biology , daphnia , life history theory , poecilia , ecology , affect (linguistics) , life history , zoology , toxicology , toxicity , environmental health , population , chemistry , psychology , fish <actinopterygii> , medicine , organic chemistry , communication , crustacean , fishery
Pharmaceutical pollutants pose a threat to aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Yet, few studies have considered the interaction between pharmaceuticals and other chronic stressors contemporaneously, even though the environmental challenges confronting animals in the wild seldom, if ever, occur in isolation. Thermal stress is one such environmental challenge that may modify the threat of pharmaceutical pollutants. Accordingly, we investigated how fluoxetine (Prozac), a common psychotherapeutic and widespread pollutant, interacts with temperature to affect life-history traits in the water flea,Daphnia magna . We chronically exposed two genotypes ofDaphnia to two ecological relevant concentrations of fluoxetine (30 ng l−1 and 300 ng l−1 ) and a concentration representing levels used in acute toxicity tests (3000 ng l−1 ) and quantified the change in phenotypic trajectories at two temperatures (20°C and 25°C). Across multiple life-history traits, we found that fluoxetine exposure impacted the fecundity, body size and intrinsic growth rate ofDaphnia in a non-monotonic manner at 20°C, and often in genotypic-specific ways. At 25°C, however, the life-history phenotypes of individuals converged under the widely varying levels of fluoxetine, irrespective of genotype. Our study underscores the importance of considering the complexity of interactions that can occur in the wild when assessing the effects of chemical pollutants on life-history traits.