RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Widespread agrochemicals differentially affect zooplankton biomass and community structure
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.10.01.322370
DO 10.1101/2020.10.01.322370
A1 Marie-Pier Hébert
A1 Vincent Fugère
A1 Beatrix E. Beisner
A1 Naíla Barbosa da Costa
A1 Rowan D. H. Barrett
A1 Graham Bell
A1 B. Jesse Shapiro
A1 Viviane Yargeau
A1 Andrew Gonzalez
A1 Gregor F. Fussmann
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/03/2020.10.01.322370.abstract
AB Anthropogenic environmental change is causing habitat deterioration at unprecedented rates in freshwater ecosystems. Despite increasing more rapidly than other agents of global change, synthetic chemical pollution –including agrochemicals such as pesticides– has received relatively little attention in freshwater biotic assessments. Determining the effects of multiple agrochemicals on complex community and ecosystem properties remains a major challenge, requiring a cross-field integration of ecology and ecotoxicology. Using a large-scale array of experimental ponds, we investigated the response of zooplankton community properties (biomass, composition, diversity metrics) to the individual and joint presence of three widespread agrochemicals: the herbicide glyphosate, the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid, and fertilisers. We tracked temporal variation in community biomass and structure (i.e., composition, diversity metrics) along single and combined pesticide gradients (each spanning eight levels), under low (mesotrophic) and high (eutrophic) nutrient-enriched conditions, and quantified (i) agrochemical interactions, (ii) response threshold concentrations, and (iii) community resistance and recovery. We found that major zooplankton groups differed in their sensitivity to pesticides: ≥3 µg/L imidacloprid impaired copepods, rotifers collapsed at glyphosate levels ≥0.3 mg/L, whereas some cladocerans were highly tolerant to pesticide contamination. Glyphosate was the most influential driver of community properties, with biomass and community structure responding rapidly but recovering unequally over time. Zooplankton biomass showed little resistance when first exposed to glyphosate, but rapidly recovered and even increased with glyphosate concentration; in contrast, richness declined in more contaminated ponds but failed to recover. Our results show that the biomass of tolerant taxa compensated for the loss of sensitive species, conferring greater resistance upon subsequent exposure; a rare example of pollution-induced community tolerance in freshwater metazoans. Overall, zooplankton biomass appears to be more resilient to agrochemical pollution than community structure, yet all community properties measured in this study were affected at glyphosate levels below common water quality guidelines in North America.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.