Uncovering the effects of pharmaceuticals in the wild, beyond individuals to animal communities

Project Information

AquaDrugs

Grant agreement ID: 101061889

DOI

10.3030/101061889

Project terminated on 15 September 2024

EC signature date 12 December 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2024

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 222 727,68

Coordinated by

SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AquaDrugs (Uncovering the effects of pharmaceuticals in the wild, beyond individuals to animal communities)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Pharmaceutical compounds with potent neuroactive and endocrine-disrupting effects are now widespread in aquatic systems worldwide. Their pollution rate is surpassing other major environmental trends, such as rising CO2 emissions, yet their complex ecological impacts remain poorly understood. Changes in animal behaviour act as an "early warning" for predicting the ecological effects of pharmaceutical pollution. Unlike lethal or developmental outcomes, behaviour is highly sensitive to the low drug concentrations commonly found in the environment. However, our understanding of these behavioural changes is still limited. A key gap in ecotoxicology is the failure to link drug-induced behavioural responses to broader population and community impacts. This lack of knowledge hinders efforts to integrate behavioural analysis into chemical risk assessments, a crucial step toward improving regulatory measures for pharmaceuticals and emerging contaminants.

How do environmental pharmaceuticals affect the behaviour, survival, and ecological communities of wildlife? My project, AquaDrugs, uses artificial intelligence and underwater animal tracking to connect the behavioural impacts of pharmaceutical pollutants across biological scales. It will provide fundamental new insights into how phamaceutical pollutants can effect animal social and ecological interactions - key biological processes that underpin population and community dynamics. In doing so, AquaDrugs will enhance the predictive power of lab-based behavioural studies in chemical risk assessments, helping to strengthen regulatory action on pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants in aquatic environments across Europe and beyond.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During my research fellowship, I conducted three large-scale experiments and published four peer-reviewed articles. Through these projects, I developed expertise in aquatic ecotoxicology, analytical chemistry, acoustic telemetry, biologging, and machine learning. The experiments, outlined below, bridge the gap between ecology and ecotoxicology, aiming to drive a paradigm shift toward more environmentally realistic approaches to chemical contaminant research. Additionally, my work expands the use of remote sensing technology and machine learning as powerful tools for investigating chemical pollution in natural ecosystems.

1. In the first experiment, I explored the interactive effects of pharmaceutical contamination and temperature on the behaviour and behavioural variability of brown trout (Salmo trutta). This study is among the first to examine how temperature modulates the behavioural and plasticity responses to pharmaceutical pollutants. The findings highlight the complex interplay between environmental stressors and pollutant impacts, offering new insights into temperature-dependent ecotoxicological risks.

2. In the second experiment, I investigated how pharmaceutical exposure affects the collective behaviour of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). As part of this project, I enhanced automated tracking software (idTracker) to quantify the effects of pollutants on group formation, structure, and dynamics. These tools improve the efficiency, standardisation, and reproducibility of behavioural phenotyping in ecotoxicology, offering a robust framework for screening the effects of chemical pollutants on social animals.

3. In the third experiment, I employed an innovative acoustic telemetry approach to assess how pharmaceutical pollution influences species interactions and survival in natural environments. This will be one of the first studies to demonstrate how drug-induced behavioral changes affect predator-prey dynamics and social interactions in the wild, providing critical data on the ecological consequences of pharmaceutical contamination.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Note that the following results for each experiment are preliminary, and further analysis is needed to finalise them.
1. At higher temperatures, pharmaceutical exposure has a stronger effect on animal behaviour and behavioural variability. These findings suggest that as temperatures rise, the impact of pharmaceutical pollutants may intensify, which has significant implications in the context of climate change.
2. Pharmaceutical exposure can disrupt collective behaviours in fish, weakening their responses to predation threats. Specifically, I observed that fish groups exposed to pharmaceuticals become less cohesive, and their leadership structures break down, resulting in poorly coordinated schools in the presence of predators.
3. Pharmaceutical exposure increases an individual’s predation risk in the wild. My findings indicate that prey species exposed to pharmaceuticals are less likely to use shelter and spend more time in high-risk areas with a greater likelihood of encountering predators, making them more vulnerable to predation.
Overall, these results offer novel insights into the effects of pharmaceutical pollution on wildlife behaviour, revealing how such impacts may scale up to population and community levels in contaminated ecosystems.