Meeting Abstract
In recent decades, pyrethroid pesticides have been deemed as a safer alternative to previously used organophosphate pesticides in agricultural and urban settings. While some evidence supports this in mammals and birds, little is known of their nonlethal effects in fish. A large percentage of urban and agricultural runoff enters waterways that contain fish and other organisms of great environmental and economic value; understanding the nonlethal effects of emerging pollutants on organisms in these systems could prove critical to preserving these resources. In fish, exposure to certain pyrethroids can affect concentrations of hormones vital to reproduction. Thus, we hypothesized that pyrethroid exposure impacts reproductive behavior. We tested our hypothesis by examining the effects of the widely used pyrethroid pesticide, bifenthrin, on the reproductive behaviors of the broadly distributed livebearing western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis. We exposed adult female fish to one of five ecologically relevant concentrations of bifenthrin for 14 days and conducted behavioral assays before and after exposure. Compared to pre-exposure and controls, low levels of bifenthrin exposure were not significantly associated with mate choice and sociality behavior. We will therefore present data that determine the impacts of bifenthrin exposure on transcriptional responses relating to reproductive and stress-related genes in brain and liver, along with behavioral scores and space use. In addition, we will highlight the importance of focused studies needed to investigate downstream effects of exposure on development and reproduction in both acutely and chronically exposed populations.
