Influence of food limitation on the effects of fenvalerate pulse exposure on the life history and population growth rate of Daphnia magna

Laboratory ecotoxicity tests may not adequately evaluate the effects of pesticides, because they often do not include more environmentally relevant conditions, such as pulsed toxicant exposures and low food conditions. Therefore, we tested the effects of a pulse of the pyrethroid insecticide fenvalerate (FV) on the life history and population growth rate (r) of the cladoceran Daphnia magna. The daphnids were subjected to a 24-h pesticide pulse exposure (0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, and 3.2 microg/L) under high and low food conditions and were monitored for 21 d. Chemical analysis showed that at t = 1 h, the nominal FV concentrations were reduced by 50 to 66%. Fenvalerate decreased survival and growth in the week following pulse exposure. Age at first reproduction increased, with consequent adverse effects on cumulative reproduction per living female and, therefore, on r. Thus, a short-term exposure of FV caused a long-term reduction on r as a result of increased mortality and a delay in development. Low food conditions exacerbated the effects of the FV exposure on juvenile survival and growth during the first week. This caused a much stronger reduction in r under low food conditions. We concluded that a pulsed FV exposure may result in long-term reduction of r that can be predicted only with more environmentally relevant toxicity tests, as described in the present study.