Endocrine disrupting compounds are ubiquitous in aquatic environments. Exposure to these compounds may cause deiodination of thyroid hormones in fish and also affect certain behaviors. Behavioral change may be a useful indicator of deiodination on an organismal level, and may indicate effects to populations, especially if these behaviors affect reproduction. We exposed Pimephales promelas (Fathead Minnow) to effluent from a recently upgraded wastewater treatment facility. The effluent contained a matrix of low-level (< 1.0 µg/L) concentrations of endocrine disrupting compounds pre- and post-upgrade. We examined the behavior of adult Fathead Minnow exposed to treated wastewater for 90 days and the behavior of their offspring at 12-20 days old. There was no significant difference in 11 of the 12 behaviors we documented for adult fish in control and treatment tanks (p > 0.05). However, treatment fish were significantly more aggressive towards a decoy fish compared to control fish (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference found in the predator avoidance behaviors examined in the F1 generation. Although our results did not find any significant differences between control and treatment fish in regard to most behaviors we would typical associate with thyroid deiodination, such behaviors may have manifested following a longer exposure period or by having a larger sample size. Other future considerations should include looking at different behaviors (e.g. social behaviors) and further characterization of the finished effluent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/625916 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Thunstrom, Kayle, Thunstrom, Kayle |
| Contributors | Walker, David B., Matter, William J., Walker, David B., Matter, William J., Bogan, Michael T. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Electronic Thesis |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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