Puyallup Research & Extension Center, Washington State University, Puyallup, WA 98371, USA; Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, CZ-37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, CZ-37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
Center for Urban Waters, Tacoma, WA 98421, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Nov 1;897:165419. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165419. Epub 2023 Jul 8.
Neonicotinoids are increasingly and widely used systemic insecticides in agriculture, residential applications, and elsewhere. These pesticides can sometimes occur in small water bodies in exceptionally high concentrations, leading to downstream non-target aquatic toxicity. Although insects appear to be the most sensitive group to neonicotinoids, other aquatic invertebrates may also be affected. Most existing studies focus on single-insecticide exposure and very little is known concerning the impact of neonicotinoid mixtures on aquatic invertebrates at the community level. To address this data gap and explore community-level effects, we performed an outdoor mesocosm experiment that tested the effect of a mixture of three common neonicotinoids (formulated imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam) on an aquatic invertebrate community. Exposure to the neonicotinoid mixture induced a top-down cascading effect on insect predators and zooplankton, ultimately increasing phytoplankton. Our results highlight complexities of mixture toxicity occurring in the environment that may be underestimated with traditional mono-specific toxicological approaches.
新烟碱类杀虫剂在农业、住宅应用和其他领域中被越来越广泛地使用。这些杀虫剂有时会在小水体中以异常高的浓度出现，导致下游非靶标水生毒性。尽管昆虫似乎是对新烟碱类杀虫剂最敏感的群体，但其他水生无脊椎动物也可能受到影响。大多数现有研究都集中在单一杀虫剂暴露上，对于新烟碱类杀虫剂混合物对水生无脊椎动物群落水平的影响知之甚少。为了解决这一数据空白并探索群落水平的影响，我们进行了一项户外中观实验，测试了三种常见新烟碱类杀虫剂（制成的吡虫啉、噻虫胺和噻虫啉）混合物对水生无脊椎动物群落的影响。暴露于新烟碱类杀虫剂混合物对昆虫捕食者和浮游动物产生了自上而下的级联效应，最终增加了浮游植物。我们的结果强调了环境中存在的混合物毒性的复杂性，这可能会被传统的单一毒性方法低估。
