Chemical pollutants are one of the main threats against biodiversity and chemicals affecting non-target organisms are of great environmental concern. The herbicide triclopyr is commonly used to keep weeds under control and is believed to be weakly toxic to animals and only lethal in high doses. However, the knowledge of possible sub-lethal behavior effects in low doses is scarce. This study investigates whether the wood ant (family Formica) show behavioral changes when exposed to sub-lethal doses of triclopyr. The main hypotheses tested were; i) ants behaving normally show a preference for dark surfaces (i.e. scototaxis); and ii) triclopyr affect this behavior trait among ants. The hypotheses were tested by exposing ants to diets containing 1, 10 and 100 mg/L triclopyr for 24 hours (acute) and 7 days (chronic). To what extent ants preferred the white surface (proportion of frames with the ant visible), their activity (proportion of speed above 1 mm/s) their exploration (proportion area covered) and their average velocities was measured using a newly developed tracking software (ToxTrac). The results clearly show that ants have preference for dark surfaces and thus, that the first hypothesis is valid. However, the second hypothesis appear invalid as the different exposures to triclopyr did not affect the examined behaviors. Based on the results, triclopyr appear to not affect non-target organism such as ants, although possible behavioral effects in other organisms and other behavioral traits cannot be excluded.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-136651 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Karlsten, Annika |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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