Behavioral responses of marked snails as indicators of water quality

Abstract

Behavioral responses of the common stream‐dwelling operculate snail Elimia clavaeformis were used to provide information about streamwater quality in in situ tests. These snails were found to be advantageous for such tests because they can be collected easily, individually marked, and transferred to other stream sites for release and recapture experiments. In noncontaminated stream sites, Elimia tended to disperse upstream. The rate of net movement was variable, but typically ranged from 0.5 to 5 m/d. Water velocity and food level influenced the movement patterns of the snails in 24‐ and 48‐h field experiments in noncontaminated stream sites. Rates of movement in the laboratory were temperature dependent, and increased from about 1.0 cm/min at 9°C to 2.2 cm/min at 24°C. In contaminated streams, snails showed clear evidence of stress: They moved downstream, and in some sites either withdrew into the shell or were unable to retract the foot or attach to a substrate. The maximum distance that Elimia traveled downstream in 24 h in a contaminated stream site was 17.5 m. In laboratory streams, Elimia moved downstream when exposed to 0.02 mg/L total residual chlorine (TRC); the time required to immobilize these snails declined rapidly as TRC concentration increased. Behavioral characteristics of snails that may be useful for water quality assessments include turnover time (the time needed for a snail to right itself after being turned onto its back), the rate and direction of dispersal or immobilization.

The role of biomarkers in environmental assessment (5). Invertebrate populations and communities

“…Isolation from the surrounding environment was observed in bivalve molluscs (Davenport 1977) but also in prosobranch species (Burris et al 1990). The avoidance of a contaminated environment during reproduction or recruitment has been reported as a protective behaviour in some species.…”

“…Other studies have shown that intoxication may negatively affect the individual ability to escape from predators (Ward et al 1976) or to swim or move (Capaldo 1987, Burris et al 1990, Villar et al 1993. At the community level, these alterations may affect predator-prey relationships.…”

Ammonia Toxicity to the Freshwater Planarian Polycelis felina: Contrasting Effects of Continuous Versus Discontinuous Exposures

“…However, despite its high ecological relevance, there is still scarce information on the effects of discontinuous exposure on behaviour (Alonso and Camargo 2004;Azevedo-Pereira et al 2011). Among behavioural endpoints, those related to movements (e.g., time to start normal activity, swimming, sliding, drift, time to reach food) are important from an ecological point of view (Burris et al 1990;Golding et al 1997;Cheung et al 2002;Camargo 2004, 2009;Cold and Forbes 2004;Beketov and Liess 2008). This kind of behaviour is related to relevant functions for animal fitness, such as the ability to avoid predators and pollutants, reproduce, search for resources, and avoid environmental stressors.…”

Sublethal responses in Melanoides tuberculata following exposure to Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii containing cylindrospermopsin

“…Poor food availability can potentially provide strong motivation for snail movement (Burris et al, 1990;Dillon, 2000). High activity could also suggest that snails were trying to escape CYN contaminated water, however, this does not explain the high activity in the controls.…”