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Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology

The use of behaviour in ecotoxicology is expanding, however the lack of standardisation and validation of these assays currently presents a major drawback in moving forward in the development of behavioural assays. Furthermore, there is a current paucity of control data on test species, particularly...

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Autores principales: Kohler, Shanelle A., Parker, Matthew O., Ford, Alex T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6064634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30065877
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5271
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author Kohler, Shanelle A.
Parker, Matthew O.
Ford, Alex T.
author_facet Kohler, Shanelle A.
Parker, Matthew O.
Ford, Alex T.
author_sort Kohler, Shanelle A.
collection PubMed
description The use of behaviour in ecotoxicology is expanding, however the lack of standardisation and validation of these assays currently presents a major drawback in moving forward in the development of behavioural assays. Furthermore, there is a current paucity of control data on test species, particularly invertebrate models. In this study we assessed a range of behaviours associated with spatial distribution and locomotion in relation to arena size and shape in two species of amphipod crustacean (Echinogammarus marinus and Gammarus pulex). Arena shape had significant effects on almost all behavioural parameters analysed. Increasing arena size resulted in an increased mean velocity and activity plus increased proportional use of the central zones. These results indicate that ‘ceiling effects’ may occur in some ecotoxicological studies resulting in potentially ‘false’ negative effects if careful consideration is not paid to experimental design. Differences in behaviours were observed between the two species of amphipod. For example, G. pulex spend approximately five times (∼20%) more of the available time crossing the central zones of the arenas compared to E. marinus (∼4%) which could have implications on assessing anxiolytic behaviours. The results of this study highlight several behaviours with potential for use in behavioural ecotoxicology with crustaceans but also underscore the need for careful consideration when designing these behavioural assays.
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spelling pubmed-60646342018-07-31 Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology Kohler, Shanelle A. Parker, Matthew O. Ford, Alex T. PeerJ Animal Behavior The use of behaviour in ecotoxicology is expanding, however the lack of standardisation and validation of these assays currently presents a major drawback in moving forward in the development of behavioural assays. Furthermore, there is a current paucity of control data on test species, particularly invertebrate models. In this study we assessed a range of behaviours associated with spatial distribution and locomotion in relation to arena size and shape in two species of amphipod crustacean (Echinogammarus marinus and Gammarus pulex). Arena shape had significant effects on almost all behavioural parameters analysed. Increasing arena size resulted in an increased mean velocity and activity plus increased proportional use of the central zones. These results indicate that ‘ceiling effects’ may occur in some ecotoxicological studies resulting in potentially ‘false’ negative effects if careful consideration is not paid to experimental design. Differences in behaviours were observed between the two species of amphipod. For example, G. pulex spend approximately five times (∼20%) more of the available time crossing the central zones of the arenas compared to E. marinus (∼4%) which could have implications on assessing anxiolytic behaviours. The results of this study highlight several behaviours with potential for use in behavioural ecotoxicology with crustaceans but also underscore the need for careful consideration when designing these behavioural assays. PeerJ Inc. 2018-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6064634/ /pubmed/30065877 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5271 Text en ©2018 Kohler et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Kohler, Shanelle A.
Parker, Matthew O.
Ford, Alex T.
Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
title Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
title_full Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
title_fullStr Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
title_full_unstemmed Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
title_short Shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
title_sort shape and size of the arenas affect amphipod behaviours: implications for ecotoxicology
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6064634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30065877
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5271
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