Polyps of the Jellyfish Aurelia aurita Are Unaffected by Chronic Exposure to a Combination of Pesticides

Abstract

Pesticides are a major contaminant in coastal waters and can cause adverse effects in marine invertebrates such as jellyfish. Most studies have investigated short‐term responses of organisms to unrealistically high concentrations of pesticides; however, chronic exposure to persistent low concentrations, which are more likely to occur in the environment, are rarely analyzed. We tested the response of polyps of the moon jellyfish Aurelia aurita to environmental concentrations of the herbicide atrazine and the insecticide chlorpyrifos, individually and in combination, over 9 wk. We hypothesized that exposure to individual pesticides would reduce rates of asexual reproduction and alter polyps' metabolite profiles, and that the results would be more severe when polyps were exposed to the combined pesticides. Polyps survived and reproduced (through budding) in all treatments, and no differences among treatments were observed. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed no difference in profiles of polar metabolites of polyps exposed to the individual or combined pesticides. Our results suggest that A. aurita polyps are unaffected by chronic exposure to atrazine and chlorpyrifos at concentrations recommended as being protective by current Australian water quality guidelines. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1685–1692. © 2020 SETAC

Fieldable Environmental DNA Sequencing to Assess Jellyfish Biodiversity in Nearshore Waters of the Florida Keys, United States

“…Despite the inherent difficulty in visually identifying medusozoans that lack a pelagic swimming stage, FeDS was shown to be effective in detecting several species of hydroids and staurozoans (stalked jellyfish) lacking a swimming medusa stage. Therefore, given the proven applications of eDNA for rapid detection of cryptic, dangerous and/or introduced species in coastal environments (Berry et al, 2019;Holman et al, 2019), our FeDS kit could serve as a powerful tool to test whether jellyfish are resilient to global shifts toward warming oceans, or if changes in climate might drastically alter patterns of jellyfish proliferation [discussed in Purcell et al (2007); Bayha and Graham (2013), Condon et al (2013), Olguín-Jacobson et al (2020].…”

Potential Effects of Persistent Organic Contaminants on Marine Biota: A Review on Recent Research

“…They are applied in the field for the protection of plants against pests, weeds, and several diseases that affect and decrease the quantity and quality of agricultural crop products. Globally, approximately 3.5 million tons of pesticides are used each year, mainly for agricultural and secondly for non-agricultural and urban purposes [175]. Therefore, an expansive range of synthetic organic pesticides belonging to different chemical classes, possessing diverse physicochemical properties, and targeting multiple and dissimilar pests are available on the market.…”

“…The distribution of pesticides between soil, water, air, and biota matrices determines their bioavailability and their environmental fate. Consequently, non-target organisms are often susceptible to pesticides due to the conserved nature of biochemical pathways across taxa, even though they are designed and marketed to target pest species [175].…”

“…The wide variety of effects observed in non-target species exposed to pesticides include detrimental impacts to biota with photosynthetic symbionts (e.g., marine microalgae Rhodomonas salina [178], diatoms Phaeodactylum tricornutum [179] and Chaetoceros muelleri [180], tropical marine cnidarian, sea anemones Exaiptasia pallida and symbiotic zooxanthellae microalga Symbiodinium spp. [181], Cassiopea maremetens medusae [182]), but also disruptions to non-photosynthetic animals such as reduced growth and reproduction rates of invertebrates (e.g., sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus [183]) and vertebrates (Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas [184] and Sheepshead minnow Cyprinodon variegatus [185]), disruptions of nerve impulses which can ultimately lead to paralysis and death of invertebrates, and several sub-lethal effects on physiological or metabolic endpoints that are usually measured during the exposure treatments and provide unambiguous information about responses to pesticide exposure [175,186,187].…”

Versatile aquarium for jellyfish: A rearing system for the biomass production of early life stages in flow-through or closed systems

“…Their maintenance is easier and much less timeconsuming than early planktonic life stages (ephyrae and metaephyrae), which are the most complicated stages in jellyfish aquaculture and consume the majority of staff time (Duarte et al, 2021). However, although polyps are resistant to some anthropogenic stressors in marine habitats (e.g., pesticides, Olguıń-Jacobson et al, 2020), to ensure successful breeding in aquaculture, it is important to maintain adequate water quality and suitable nutrition (Raskoff et al, 2003;Crow et al, 2013;Duarte et al, 2021).…”