TY - JOUR
T1 - Widespread psychoactive pollutant augments daytime restfulness and disrupts diurnal activity rhythms in fish
AU - Tan, Hung
AU - Martin, Jake M.
AU - Alton, Lesley A.
AU - Lesku, John A.
AU - Wong, Bob B.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (FT190100014and DP220100245 to B·B.M.W.; DP170101003 to J.A.L.), the SETAC Australasia, Australia and ACEDD Peter Teasdale Memorial Award (to H.T.), the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment – Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation and Ecological Society of Australia (to H.T.), and the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (to H.T.).Experiments complied with Australian law and were approved by the Monash University Animal Ethics Committee (Project ID 27830).
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council ( FT190100014 and DP220100245 to B·B.M.W.; DP170101003 to J.A.L.), the SETAC Australasia , Australia and ACEDD Peter Teasdale Memorial Award (to H.T.), the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment – Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation and Ecological Society of Australia (to H.T.), and the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (to H.T.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - Pharmaceutical pollution is a major driver of global change, with the capacity to alter key behavioural and physiological traits in exposed animals. Antidepressants are among the most commonly detected pharmaceuticals in the environment. Despite well-documented pharmacological effects of antidepressants on sleep in humans and other vertebrates, very little is known about their ecologically relevant impacts as pollutants on non-target wildlife. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of acute 3-day exposure of eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) to field-realistic levels (nominal concentrations: 30 and 300 ng/L) of the widespread psychoactive pollutant, fluoxetine, on diurnal activity patterns and restfulness, as indicators of disruptions to sleep. We show that exposure to fluoxetine disrupted diel activity patterns, which was driven by augmentation of daytime inactivity. Specifically, unexposed control fish were markedly diurnal, swimming farther during the day and exhibiting longer periods and more bouts of inactivity at night. However, in fluoxetine-exposed fish, this natural diel rhythm was eroded, with no differences in activity or restfulness observed between the day and night. As a misalignment in the circadian rhythm has been shown to adversely affect fecundity and lifespan in animals, our findings reveal a potentially serious threat to the survival and reproductive success of pollutant-exposed wildlife.
AB - Pharmaceutical pollution is a major driver of global change, with the capacity to alter key behavioural and physiological traits in exposed animals. Antidepressants are among the most commonly detected pharmaceuticals in the environment. Despite well-documented pharmacological effects of antidepressants on sleep in humans and other vertebrates, very little is known about their ecologically relevant impacts as pollutants on non-target wildlife. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of acute 3-day exposure of eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) to field-realistic levels (nominal concentrations: 30 and 300 ng/L) of the widespread psychoactive pollutant, fluoxetine, on diurnal activity patterns and restfulness, as indicators of disruptions to sleep. We show that exposure to fluoxetine disrupted diel activity patterns, which was driven by augmentation of daytime inactivity. Specifically, unexposed control fish were markedly diurnal, swimming farther during the day and exhibiting longer periods and more bouts of inactivity at night. However, in fluoxetine-exposed fish, this natural diel rhythm was eroded, with no differences in activity or restfulness observed between the day and night. As a misalignment in the circadian rhythm has been shown to adversely affect fecundity and lifespan in animals, our findings reveal a potentially serious threat to the survival and reproductive success of pollutant-exposed wildlife.
KW - Activity
KW - Anthropogenic change
KW - Behavioural ecotoxicology
KW - Gambusia holbrooki
KW - Prozac
KW - Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150449715&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138446
DO - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138446
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150449715
SN - 0045-6535
VL - 326
JO - Chemosphere
JF - Chemosphere
M1 - 138446
ER -