Guixin Han,Ren Kong,Chunsheng Liu,Kai Huang,Qiaolin Xu,Jian Wu,Jiamin Fei,Hui Zhang,Guanyong Su,Robert J. Letcher,Jianbo Shi,Jason R. Rohr
Pesticides have been frequently detected in global freshwater ecosystems, but attempts to document changes in population dynamics of organisms upon exposure to pesticides, establish a causal relationship between exposure and population effects, and identify the key toxic events within individuals under natural field conditions remain rare. Here, we used a field survey, a reciprocal cross-transplant experiment, and a laboratory toxicity experiment to build a compelling case that exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos was responsible for differences in snail (Bellamya aeruginosa) densities in eastern (ELL) and western basins of Liangzi Lake in China. Our field survey and reciprocal cross-transplant experiment revealed significant differences in snail densities, juvenile percentage, survival, and relative telomere length (RTL) in the two basins. The insecticide chlorpyrifos detected in snail tissues was negatively correlated with snail densities, the percentage of juvenile snails, and RTL and had an extremely high risk quotient in ELL. In the laboratory experiment, tissue concentrations of chlorpyrifos detected in ELL were associated with reduced RTL and increased juvenile mortality in B. aeruginosa. These results support the hypothesis that chlorpyrifos exposure in ELL reduced the density of snails by reducing juvenile survival and, consequently, recruitment to the adult population.
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are among the most widely used engineered nanomaterials and may eventually accumulate in sediments. Limited information is currently available regarding the toxicity, bioaccumulation and distribution of sediment-associated AgNPs in aquatic organisms. In the present study, a freshwater snail Bellamya aeruginosa was exposed via sediment to commercial Ag particles of four nominal sizes: 20 nm (AgNPs-20), 40 nm (AgNPs-40), 80 nm (AgNPs-80), and < 10 μm (bulk Ag), and to silver nitrate at sub-lethal concentrations (1, 10 and 100 μg Ag/g sediment). Ag burden and biomarkers of oxidative stress were assessed in different tissues of B . aeruginosa : hepatopancreas, gonad, foot and digestive tracts. All five Ag types were available for uptake by B . aeruginosa when spiked into sediment, and Ag accumulation in different tissues presented the following pattern: hepatopancreas > gonad ≈ digestive tracts > foot. Snails accumulated higher levels of Ag from aqueous Ag than from particulate Ag. In contrast, AgNPs-40 and AgNPs-80 treatments occasionally induced higher oxidative stress than aqueous Ag, indicating the significant role of nanoparticle itself in exerting toxicity. Size-dependent toxicity of AgNPs in sediment was also found, with AgNPs-20 showing lower toxicity than other Ag particles. Overall, this study demonstrated that the toxicity of sediment-associated AgNPs to B . aeruginosa varies with size and differs from aqueous Ag.