The impacts of pesticides on aquatic communities: Connections to global amphibian declines?

Rick Relyea, University of Pittsburgh

April 22, 2010 @ 04:45 pm to 05:45 pm

100 Life Sciences Building

Event Website

The field of toxicology has a long history of focusing on the direct lethal effects on species using short-term, single-species, laboratory experiments._ However, there is a growing appreciation that a community-ecology approach to toxicology can provide important insights including the role of sublethal effects (e.g., contaminant-induced behaviors and how they alter interspecific interactions), synergistic effects (among contaminants and between contaminants and natural stressors), and trophic cascades through a food web._ Research taking this community-ecology perspective has identified a number of outcomes that are not observable in single-species laboratory tests but often do reflect basic community ecology principles._ Using a model system of wetland communities with a focus on larval amphibians, I will discuss how taking a community perspective has lead to exciting new discoveries about contaminant effects that have major conservation implications.

Contact

Kristen Granger
klg297@psu.edu