Forette Lindsay M, Mannion Krystal L, Dzieweczynski Teresa L
Department of Psychology, University of New England, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME 04005, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of New England, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME 04005, USA; Department of Marine Science, University of New England, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME 04005, USA.
Behav Processes. 2015 Apr;113:172-8. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2015.02.008. Epub 2015 Feb 16.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals can negatively impact the morphology and behavior of organisms inhabiting polluted waters. Male-typical behaviors are often reduced after exposure, suggesting that exposure may have population-level effects. One way in which exposure may exert population-level effects is by interfering with communication within a network of individuals. Acute exposure to the estrogen mimic 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) disrupts the ability of male Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens, to modify their behavior during male-male interactions when an audience is present. However, it is unknown whether audience effects during male-female interactions may be similarly altered. To examine this, male-female pairs that were given an acute exposure to EE2 or remained unexposed interacted in the presence of a female, male, or no audience. Sex differences were found between unexposed males and females. More interactant-directed gill flaring was displayed by control males when a male audience was present while control females performed this behavior more in the presence of an audience, regardless of sex. Both males and females in the control group performed more interactant-directed tail beats in the presence of a female audience. EE2 exposure made all audience effects disappear as treated males and females did not differ in their responses between audience types. These results demonstrate that acute exposure to EE2 may disrupt behavioral adjustments to audience type within a social network. This disruption may, in turn, influence population dynamics in this species as both males and females use information obtained from observing interactions in later encounters with the observed individuals.
内分泌干扰化学物质会对栖息在受污染水域中的生物的形态和行为产生负面影响。接触此类物质后，雄性典型行为往往会减少，这表明接触可能会产生种群水平的影响。接触可能产生种群水平影响的一种方式是干扰个体网络内的交流。急性接触雌激素模拟物17α-乙炔雌二醇（EE2）会破坏暹罗斗鱼（Betta splendens）雄性在有观众在场的雄性-雄性互动中改变其行为的能力。然而，尚不清楚在雄性-雌性互动过程中的观众效应是否也会发生类似改变。为了研究这一点，对急性接触EE2或未接触EE2的雄性-雌性配对在有雌性、雄性或无观众的情况下进行互动观察。未接触EE2的雄性和雌性之间存在性别差异。当有雄性观众在场时，对照雄性表现出更多针对互动对象的鳃扇动行为，而对照雌性在有观众在场时，无论观众性别，都会更多地表现出这种行为。对照组中的雄性和雌性在有雌性观众在场时，都会表现出更多针对互动对象的尾部摆动行为。EE2暴露使所有观众效应消失，因为接受处理的雄性和雌性在不同观众类型下的反应没有差异。这些结果表明，急性接触EE2可能会扰乱社交网络中对观众类型的行为调整。这种扰乱反过来可能会影响该物种的种群动态，因为雄性和雌性都会利用从观察互动中获得的信息，以便在后续与被观察个体的相遇中做出反应。
