The Role of Behavioral Ecotoxicology in Environmental Protection

Abstract

For decades, we have known that chemicals affect human and wildlife behavior. Moreover, due to recent technological and computational advances, scientists are now increasingly aware that a wide variety of contaminants and other environmental stressors adversely affect organismal behavior and subsequent ecological outcomes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. There is also a groundswell of concern that regulatory ecotoxicology does not adequately consider behavior, primarily due to a lack of standardized toxicity methods. This has, in turn, led to the exclusion of many behavioral ecotoxicology studies from chemical risk assessments. To improve understanding of the challenges and opportunities for behavioral ecotoxicology within regulatory toxicology/risk assessment, a unique workshop with international representatives from the fields of behavioral ecology, ecotoxicology, regulatory (eco)­toxicology, neurotoxicology, test standardization, and risk assessment resulted in the formation of consensus perspectives and recommendations, which promise to serve as a roadmap to advance interfaces among the basic and translational sciences, and regulatory practices.

Effects of the Antidepressants Citalopram and Venlafaxine on the Big Ramshorn Snail (Planorbarius corneus)

“…Consequently, snails that are unable to attach to the surface are, most likely, at a higher risk of predation and are unable to feed [31,32]. As a result, "sole detachment" can reasonably be regarded a population-relevant proxy for viability, as behavioural endpoints are often crucial for individual fitness [38,39].…”

“…Behaviour is a population-relevant endpoint, which potentially affects individual fitness and, in turn, population survival [38,39]. As a behavioural endpoint in aquatic snails, the detachment of the sole from the aquarium surface has been shown to be sensitive and to reflect the impact of antidepressants as behaviour-altering substances [30][31][32].…”

Structure-to-process design framework for developing safer pesticides

“…Here, we outline a comprehensive in silico strategy for screening existing and designing new, safer pesticides, which represents a nexus of our past efforts in computational chemistry, green chemistry, and toxicology. We rely on acute aquatic toxicity as the primary end point for ecotoxicity assessments, recognizing its applicability in informing chronic toxicity (20)(21)(22) and in predicting toxic effects in other species by encompassing a wide range of modes and mechanisms of action (21,(23)(24)(25). In our model, we leverage previously developed and validated design guidelines (21,22,26), which balance mechanistic relevance with nonspecific reactivity, thus serving as a useful proxy for a general toxic potential and a descriptor of pesticides' intended (biological) function.…”

Methamphetamine pollution elicits addiction in wild fish

“…Though behavioral perturbations by neurologically active contaminants may have fundamentally important consequences to individual-, population-and community-level dynamics (Saaristo et al, 2018), behavioral response variables are rarely employed during environmental assessments (Ågerstrand et al, 2020). However, Ford et al (2021) recently provided consensus perspectives and recommendations to advance behavioral ecotoxicology interfaces between the basic and translational sciences. These recommendations are particularly relevant for illicit drugs because information on their potential behavioral impacts in aquatic ecosystems are poorly understood.…”