1-3 Sat Jan 2 Blinded by darkness and contaminants: Impacts of multiple, interacting pollutants on visual behavior during early development Suriyampola, PS*; Lopez, M; Suárez-Rodríguez, M; Ellsworth, BE; Conroy-Ben, O; Martins, EP; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ psuriyam@asu.edu https://www.piyumika-suriyampola.com/
Anthropogenic activities often lead to alterations in natural environment via multiple routes. Simultaneous occurrence and interactions between multiple environmental perturbations may cause more complex influences on the way that animals respond than when being exposed to a single pollutant. The differences within phenotypes in organisms exposed to a single pollutant versus a mixture of different pollutants may depend on whether pollutants enhance, reduce, or have no impact on traits when they interact with each other. In our study, we investigated the interactive effects of deterioration in visual environment and exposure to a common contaminant, Bisphenol-A (BPA), on behavioral responses of larval zebrafish Danio rerio. Specifically, we tested the behavior of zebrafish larvae by exposing them to low-light conditions and environmentally relevant dosages of BPA for 7 days post fertilization. We found that the interaction between BPA and dim light conditions have the strongest influence on the visual behavior of zebrafish larvae as they were the least active and displayed the weakest response to an optomotor assay. Individuals exposed to either dim light conditions or BPA alone responded similarly to visual cues. With this study, we emphasize that pollution is almost never restricted to a single modality and we need to incorporate multiple pollutants to fully assess the impact that human activities have on behavior and performance of animals. Our findings provide evidence to explore how different modalities of human disturbances could interact to observe differences in behavior.