Meeting Abstract
Pharmaceutical pollution is an emerging environmental concern, with a variety of mediations appearing in surface waters around the world. In the environment, exposure to UV radiation can transform these compounds into related molecules, which can be more toxic than the original compound. Despite increased attention to the effects of pharmaceutical pollution on aquatic life, very little is known about the ecotoxicology of pharmaceutical transformation products. Antidepressants, including the widely-prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft), have been regularly detected in the environment and have been shown to cause a variety of behavioral changes in organisms ranging from mollusks to fish to tadpoles. We investigated the effects of these compounds and their UV-phototransformation products on the behavior of amphibian larvae, which are particularly vulnerable to aquatic pollution due to their permeable skin. Southern toad tadpoles were exposed to solutions of fluoxetine and sertraline, with or without phototransformation, and behavioral assays were conducted to examine startle response, aggregation behavior, and refuge use. These behaviors are relevant to sertraline’s mode of action, similar to behavioral changes observed in other organisms exposed to similar antidepressants, and potentially important to tadpoles’ vulnerability to predation. The results of this research will help us better evaluate the level of risk posed by these antidepressants in the aquatic environment.
