2026-10-07T04:33:11Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/30302140 2026-09-30T11:17:27Z category_24214 category_24223 category_24250 category_26971 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Pharmaceutical pollutant reshapes behavioural variation in the eastern mosquitofish, <i>Gambusia holbrooki</i> Raiko Rafeeq (22363888) Upama Aich (14692702) Minna Saaristo (409832) Bob B. M. Wong (11579003) Behavioural ecology Freshwater ecology Biological adaptation Pollution and contamination not elsewhere classified Ecotoxicology Venlafaxine Pharmaceutical pollution Phenotypic variation Animal behavior <p dir="ltr">Pharmaceutical pollution is a global environmental threat, and understanding the associated ecological impacts is a pressing concern. Importantly, these impacts are not limited to population-level responses, but also include shifts at the individual-level. As individual variation underpins selection, such disruptions could have significant ecological and evolutionary consequences. An emerging idea suggests that pollutants can influence the success of invasive species by modulating individual-level variation. Therefore, we investigated whether exposure to the antidepressant venlafaxine, a ubiquitous pharmaceutical pollutant, affected between-individual behavioral variation in the invasive eastern mosquitofish (<i>Gambusia holbrooki</i>). Fish were exposed to environmentally realistic levels of venlafaxine (measured concentrations: 0, 0.44 and 0.74 µg/L) for 28 days. Following exposure, individuals completed three behavioral trials (open field, refuge use, and foraging) and were then measured for body condition. We found that venlafaxine caused sex and context-specific increases in between-individual variation of activity and refuge use. In contrast, venlafaxine decreased between-individual variation of food consumption in males. Venlafaxine also altered behavioral syndromes, strengthening some correlations whilst eroding others in a sex- and context-dependent manner. Overall, our study reveals novel evidence that exposure to a pharmaceutical pollutant can disrupt behavioral variation in ways that could facilitate and/or hinder adaptive capacity, and thus potentially invasion success, with outcomes dependent on context.</p> 2026-09-30T11:17:27Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.30302140.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Pharmaceutical_pollutant_reshapes_behavioural_variation_in_the_eastern_mosquitofish_i_Gambusia_holbrooki_i_/30302140 CC BY 4.0