Section for Aquatic Biology and Toxicology, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Environ Toxicol Chem. 2020 May;39(5):1017-1026. doi: 10.1002/etc.4688. Epub 2020 Mar 29.
In ecotoxicology and aquatic ecology, we often ignore responses of individuals and focus on average responses. However, both terrestrial and aquatic animals display consistent behavioral differences between individuals. The distribution of behavioral differences within a population contains vital information for predicting population responses to novel environmental challenges. Currently, individual data for behavioral and physiological traits of small marine invertebrates are few, partly because such variation is lost within published group means and assumed normality. We tested the combined effects of an inorganic contaminant (copper) and a biological stressor (i.e., chemical cues of a fish predator) on activity in a marine copepod. Although direct stress effects were weak, individuals behaved consistently differently, depending on the context. Individual differences in behavior were only expressed under the influence of kairomones, but not by copper exposure alone. This finding indicates that copepods express repeatable and context-dependent behavior. We also demonstrate how large variations in behavioral data can hide consistent differences between individuals. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1017-1026. © 2020 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.
在生态毒理学和水生生态学中，我们经常忽略个体的反应，而专注于平均反应。然而，无论是陆生动物还是水生动物，个体之间都表现出一致的行为差异。在预测种群对新的环境挑战的反应时，种群内行为差异的分布包含着重要的信息。目前，关于小型海洋无脊椎动物的行为和生理特征的个体数据很少，部分原因是这种变异在已发表的组平均值中丢失了，且被认为是正态的。我们测试了一种无机污染物（铜）和一种生物胁迫源（即鱼类捕食者的化学信号）对一种海洋桡足类动物活动的综合影响。尽管直接的胁迫效应较弱，但个体的行为表现却始终存在差异，这取决于环境。只有在信息素的影响下，个体差异才会表现出来，而不是仅仅受到铜暴露的影响。这一发现表明桡足类动物表现出可重复和依赖于环境的行为。我们还展示了行为数据的巨大差异如何掩盖了个体之间的一致差异。环境毒理学与化学 2020；39：1017-1026。©2020 作者。环境毒理学与化学由 Wiley 期刊出版公司代表 SETAC 出版。
