Interactive effects of fish predation and sublethal insecticide concentrations on freshwater zooplankton communities

GUTIERREZ, MARÍA FLORENCIA; ROJAS MOLINA, FLORENCIA; FRAU, DIEGO; MAYORA, GISELA; BATTAUZ, Y.

ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020

0147-6513

Stresses imposed by insecticides and predators are possibly the most rigorous filters to which aquatic organisms are exposed in rivers and lakes associated with agricultural lands. However, their interactive effects on zooplankton communities are still unclear. This study elucidated the zooplankton community response to fish predation, the insecticide chlorpyrifos (CLP), and a combination of both factors, using a 30-day mesocosm experiment. The zooplankton assemblage was influenced by fish presence prior to CLP toxicity. Fish predation reduced microcrustacean density leading to a community dominated by microzooplankton (i.e.: rotifers and copepod nauplii). CLP decreased the species richness in treatments with and without fish, yielding an increase in the abundance of bdelloid rotifers, in the genera Lepadella and Trichocerca. The zooplankton:phytoplankton (