Effects of a neonicotinoid insecticide and population density on behavior and development of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica)

Abstract

Amphibians have been facing global declines over the last decades due to direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic activities. A contributor to declines is waterway contamination from agricultural runoffs of pesticides such as neonicotinoids. Beyond direct and indirect effects of the pesticide, few studies have investigated the possible interactions between neonicotinoids and natural environmental stressors across larval development, which could alter the strength and direction of observed neonicotinoid effects. This study used a fully crossed design to investigate how a concentration of imidacloprid (a neonicotinoid; 10 µg/L) measured in surface waters interacted with low and high population density (0.33 and 1 tadpole/L, respectively), an important environmental stressor, to influence behavior and development across metamorphosis in wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) known to breed in agricultural landscapes. Behaviors were measured in the absence and presence of predation cues using open-field tests at three distinct developmental stages, up to the metamorph stage. We found that imidacloprid did not interact with population density or independently affect behaviors in the absence of predation cues. However, individuals raised at high density compared with low density were more active at an early developmental stage but less active at metamorphic climax. Furthermore, both density and imidacloprid independently decreased the natural freezing response of tadpoles to predation cues. Finally, we found that distance travelled in the open-field test was weakly repeatable between aquatic stages but not repeatable across metamorphosis, a pattern that was not affected by treatments. This study provides novel insights on the ecotoxicology of imidacloprid in the presence of a natural stressor, highlighting the importance of including behavioral assays and natural stressors in studies of amphibian ecotoxicology.