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Individual and mixture effects of five agricultural pesticides on zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae

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Abstract

In the present study, we evaluated the individual and mixture toxicities of imidacloprid and other four pesticides (atrazine, chlorpyrifos, butachlor, and λ-cyhalothrin) to the zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae in order to clarify the interactive effects of pesticides on aquatic organisms. Results from the 96-h semi-static toxicity test indicated that chlorpyrifos, λ-cyhalothrin, and butachlor had the highest toxicities to D. rerio with an LC50 value ranging from 0.28 (0.13∼0.38) to 0.45 (0.31∼0.59) mg AI L−1, followed by atrazine with an LC50 value of 15.63 (10.71∼25.76) mg AI L−1, while imidacloprid exhibited the least toxicity to the organisms with an LC50 value of 143.7 (99.98∼221.6) mg AI L−1. Seven pesticide mixtures (two binary mixtures of imidacloprid + atrazine and imidacloprid + λ-cyhalothrin, two ternary mixtures of imidacloprid + atrazine + λ-cyhalothrin and imidacloprid + butachlor + λ-cyhalothrin, two quaternary mixtures of imidacloprid + atrazine + chlorpyrifos + λ-cyhalothrin and imidacloprid + chlorpyrifos + butachlor + λ-cyhalothrin, and one quinquenary mixture of imidacloprid + atrazine + chlorpyrifos + butachlor + λ-cyhalothrin) exhibited synergistic effects with equitoxic ratio and equivalent concentration on the zebrafish. Our results highlighted that the simultaneous presence of several pesticides in the aquatic environment might lead to increased toxicity, causing serious damage to the aquatic ecosystems compared with their individual toxicities. Therefore, the toxic effects of both individual pesticides and their mixtures should be incorporated into the environmental risk evaluation of pesticides.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the technical assistance of Hongchen Wang, Meng Cao, and Tianqin Peng (Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences). The research was supported by the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant No. 201503107), the Zhejiang Provincial Major Scientific Research Project for Agriculture (Grant No. ZJNY2016001), and the Application Research Project of the Public Interest in Zhejiang Province (Grant No. 2015C32047).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control/Key Laboratory for Pesticide Residue Detection of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Quality and Standard for Agro-Products, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310021, China

    Yanhua Wang, Guiling Yang, Zhenlan Xu, Leiming Cai & Qiang Wang

  2. Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310020, China

    Dejiang Dai

  3. Quality Supervision Division, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture, Hangzhou, 310020, China

    Yijun Yu

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  1. Yanhua Wang
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  2. Guiling Yang
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  3. Dejiang Dai
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  4. Zhenlan Xu
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  5. Leiming Cai
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Correspondence to Qiang Wang or Yijun Yu.

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Wang, Y., Yang, G., Dai, D. et al. Individual and mixture effects of five agricultural pesticides on zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 4528–4536 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-8205-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-8205-9

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