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Feeding Behavior of an Aquatic Snail as a Simple Endpoint to Assess the Exposure to Cadmium

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Abstract

One of the aims of ecotoxicology is the assessment of the effects of chemicals on the ecosystems. Bioassays assessing lethality are frequently used in ecotoxicology, however they usually employ supra-environmental toxic concentrations. Toxicity tests employing behavioral endpoints may present a balance between simplicity (i.e., laboratory bioassays) and complexity (i.e., relevant ecological effects). The aim of this study was to develop a feeding behavioral bioassay with the aquatic snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, which included a 2 days exposure to cadmium, followed by a 9 days post-exposure observational period. Several behavioral feeding endpoints were monitored, including percentage of actively feeding animals, percentage of animals in food quadrants and a mobility index. The percentage of actively feeding animals was reduced by the four cadmium treatments (0.009, 0.026, 0.091 and 0.230 mg Cd/L) with the stronger effect in the highest concentration. The two highest cadmium concentrations significantly reduced the percentage of animals in food quadrants and the mobility index. Therefore, the percentage of actively feeding animals was the most sensitive endpoint to cadmium toxicity as the four cadmium concentrations caused a significant decrease in this endpoint. It is concluded that feeding behavior is a useful endpoint to detect the exposure of aquatic snails to cadmium.

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Acknowledgements

Funds for this research came from the University of Alcalá (research project CCG2013/EXP-054 and CCG2016/EXP-054), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Research Project CGL-2006-06804/BOS) and POII10˗0179˗4700 of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla˗La Mancha. Our thanks to Julio Camargo for providing climatic chambers for this study. Our sincere gratitude to Pilar Castro for correcting the English text and for her useful comments to improve this work.

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  1. Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Unidad Docente de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Álvaro Alonso & Guillermo Valle-Torres

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  1. Álvaro Alonso
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  2. Guillermo Valle-Torres
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Correspondence to Álvaro Alonso.

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Alonso, Á., Valle-Torres, G. Feeding Behavior of an Aquatic Snail as a Simple Endpoint to Assess the Exposure to Cadmium. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 100, 82–88 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2230-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2230-3

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