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Sublethal and sex-specific cypermethrin effects in toxicity tests with the midge Chironomus riparius Meigen

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Abstract

We quantified sublethal and sex-specific cypermethrin effects in experiments (29 days) with the midge Chironomus riparius at different levels of sediment organic matter content (0, 5, and 20%). We found highly significant effects of cypermethrin concentrations and sediment type on emergence, mean development rate, and adult size. For example, emergence/survival rates were 70–100% below 0.8 μg/l and unaffected by organic matter content. At 3.2 μg/l, however, no larvae survived in sediment without organic matter, but survival successively increased to 26 ± 11% in sediment with 20% organic matter. Mean development rates were always higher for males than for females, and significant differences between sexes occurred consistently in controls and in treatments with our lowest concentration of 0.05 μg/l. Sex-specific differences in mean development rate decreased across the cypermethrin gradient, suggesting that male development was affected more than that of females at similar concentrations. We also found an increase in adult size across the concentration gradient in sediments lacking organic matter and suggest an increased feeding activity due to sublethal toxic stress as a probable causal mechanism. We speculate that the observed sex-specific effects on development rates and adult size can have strong repercussions on emergence timing and fecundity, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the laboratory staff of pesticide laboratory at the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment for preparing and analyzing cypermethrin solutions and Annika Lindvall and David Englund for laboratory assistance. We also thank David Angeler and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on an earlier draft.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, SE-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Willem Goedkoop & Nina Åkerblom

  2. Department of Animal Ecology, University of Bielefeld, Morgenbreede 45, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

    Nicole Spann

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  1. Willem Goedkoop
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  3. Nina Åkerblom
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Correspondence to Willem Goedkoop.

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Goedkoop, W., Spann, N. & Åkerblom, N. Sublethal and sex-specific cypermethrin effects in toxicity tests with the midge Chironomus riparius Meigen. Ecotoxicology 19, 1201–1208 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-010-0505-0

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