Ramirez-Duarte Wilson F, Moran Benjamin M, Powell Daniel L, Bank Claudia, Sousa Vitor C, Rosenthal Gil G, Schumer Molly, Rochman Chelsea M
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Room 3055, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B2, Canada.
Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2025 Feb;100(1):35-49. doi: 10.1111/brv.13126. Epub 2024 Aug 2.
Chemical pollutants and/or climate change have the potential to break down reproductive barriers between species and facilitate hybridization. Hybrid zones may arise in response to environmental gradients and secondary contact between formerly allopatric populations, or due to the introduction of non-native species. In freshwater ecosystems, field observations indicate that changes in water quality and chemistry, due to pollution and climate change, are correlated with an increased frequency of hybridization. Physical and chemical disturbances of water quality can alter the sensory environment, thereby affecting chemical and visual communication among fish. Moreover, multiple chemical compounds (e.g. pharmaceuticals, metals, pesticides, and industrial contaminants) may impair fish physiology, potentially affecting phenotypic traits relevant for mate selection (e.g. pheromone production, courtship, and coloration). Although warming waters have led to documented range shifts, and chemical pollution is ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems, few studies have tested hypotheses about how these stressors may facilitate hybridization and what this means for biodiversity and species conservation. Through a systematic literature review across disciplines (i.e. ecotoxicology and evolutionary biology), we evaluate the biological interactions, toxic mechanisms, and roles of physical and chemical environmental stressors (i.e. chemical pollution and climate change) in disrupting mate preferences and inducing interspecific hybridization in freshwater fish. Our study indicates that climate change-driven changes in water quality and chemical pollution may impact visual and chemical communication crucial for mate choice and thus could facilitate hybridization among fishes in freshwater ecosystems. To inform future studies and conservation management, we emphasize the importance of further research to identify the chemical and physical stressors affecting mate choice, understand the mechanisms behind these interactions, determine the concentrations at which they occur, and assess their impact on individuals, populations, species, and biological diversity in the Anthropocene.
化学污染物和/或气候变化有可能打破物种间的生殖障碍并促进杂交。杂交区可能因环境梯度以及先前异域分布的种群之间的二次接触而出现，或者是由于外来物种的引入。在淡水生态系统中，实地观察表明，由于污染和气候变化导致的水质和化学变化与杂交频率增加相关。水质的物理和化学干扰会改变感官环境，从而影响鱼类之间的化学和视觉通讯。此外，多种化合物（如药物、金属、农药和工业污染物）可能损害鱼类生理机能，潜在地影响与配偶选择相关的表型特征（如信息素产生、求偶行为和体色）。尽管水温升高已导致有记录的分布范围变化，且化学污染在淡水生态系统中普遍存在，但很少有研究检验关于这些压力源如何促进杂交以及这对生物多样性和物种保护意味着什么的假设。通过跨学科（即生态毒理学和进化生物学）的系统文献综述，我们评估了物理和化学环境压力源（即化学污染和气候变化）在破坏配偶偏好和诱导淡水鱼种间杂交方面的生物相互作用、毒性机制及作用。我们的研究表明，气候变化驱动的水质变化和化学污染可能影响对配偶选择至关重要的视觉和化学通讯，从而可能促进淡水生态系统中鱼类的杂交。为指导未来的研究和保护管理工作，我们强调进一步开展研究以确定影响配偶选择的化学和物理压力源、理解这些相互作用背后的机制、确定其发生的浓度并评估它们在人类世对个体、种群、物种和生物多样性的影响的重要性。
