Locomotor activity and respiration rate of the ground beetle, Pterostichus oblongopunctatus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), exposed to elevated nickel concentration at different temperatures: novel application of Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor®

Abstract

The aim of the work was to study effects of suboptimal temperature on nickel toxicity under chronic exposure and to apply the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor (MFB) for the first time to soil organisms in order to link behavioral to physiological endpoints. Ground beetles Pterostichus oblongopunctatus were reared at 10 or 20 degrees C on control or Ni-contaminated (2500 mg Ni kg(-1)) food. After 64 days half of the Ni-exposed beetles were transferred to uncontaminated food (elimination phase). The remaining Ni-exposed beetles were left on the contaminated food to the end of the experiment (96 days). After completing the experiment, respiration rate and locomotor activity were measured in Ni-contaminated beetles (Ni), Ni-contaminated ones after elimination (E), and controls (C). Then, the beetles were analyzed for Ni body loads. The respiration rate, which was always measured at 20 degrees C for all experimental groups, was highest in Ni beetles reared at 10 degrees C and did not differ between groups C and E. Similarly, locomotor activity was highest in Ni beetles, and marginally significant temperature effect was found. The study indicated thus that exposure to elevated Ni concentrations increased the maintenance costs in P. oblongopunctatus and that rearing the beetles at suboptimal temperature increased the respiration rate even further. However, the effects observed in both respiration rate and locomotor activity were reversible after decontamination. The study demonstrated also the potential of MFB for assessing the behavior of soil-dwelling organism in environmental toxicology.

Cellular Energy Allocation to Assess the Impact of Nanomaterials on Soil Invertebrates (Enchytraeids): The Effect of Cu and Ag

“…The increase in metabolic activity (Ec increased in all the Cu forms tested (3–7 days)) reflects the increased energetic demand to deal with the stress caused by Cu. This has been observed for other organisms exposed to metals (e.g., E. albidus to Cd and Zn [ 10 ], Pterostichus oblongopunctatus to Ni [ 41 ]) and the increase in metabolic rate is a common effect of Cu exposure in aquatic organisms (clamps, fish and crabs) [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Muller et al [ 45 ] found that ZnO NPs cause an increase in mussels’ respiration rate and conclude that the NPs target the maintenance of the organisms (instead of growth).…”

Range of Pterostichus oblongopunctatus (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in conditions of global climate change

“…This species is quite a convenient practical object for physiological studies: there are studies of the effect of nickel on its own and in combination with chlorpyrifos and heightened temperature on larvae and imagines of this species (Bednarska & Laskowski, 2007;Bednarska & Kaszowska, 2014). Toxicological studies on this species led to a number of important conclusions being drawn on the toxicology of the pollutants, applicable for other species of ground beetles and insects in general (Łagisz et al, 2002;Bednarska et al, 2010aBednarska et al, , 2010bBednarska et al, , 2016Bednarska et al, , 2017Simon et al, 2016). Work on different aspects of populational diversity on genetic (Siepel, 1988;Den Boer et al, 1992;Lagisz et al, 2010) and morphological (Emetz, 1986;Schwerk & Jaskuła, 2018) levels allow one to state that P. oblongopunctatus is one of the best studied species of ground beetles.…”

The use of spontaneous behavior, swimming performances and metabolic rate to evaluate toxicity of PFOS on topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva

“…The locomotor activity level is closely linked to the energy expenditure. Toxicants may interfere with the energetics of an animal in at least two different ways: through changes in locomotor activity and through direct effects on the metabolic rate due to increasing costs of detoxification [29,30]. In this study, PFOS exposure produced significant effects on RMR (Fig.…”