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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 61(2)

Effects of a pharmaceutical mixture at environmentally relevant concentrations on the amphipod Gammarus fossarum

Sabine Dietrich A C , Shana Dammel A , Florian Ploessl B , Franz Bracher B and Christian Laforsch A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Großhaderner Straße 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.

B Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Butenandtstraße 5, 81377 Munich, Germany.

C Corresponding author. Email: dietrich@biologie.uni-muenchen.de

Marine and Freshwater Research 61(2) 196-203 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF09048
Submitted: 6 March 2009  Accepted: 30 July 2009   Published: 25 February 2010

Abstract

The continuous discharge of pharmaceuticals into the environment results in the chronic exposure of aquatic organisms to complex drug mixtures. We examined the influence of a mixture of pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DIC), metoprolol (MET) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2)) at environmentally relevant (‘env’) and artificially high (‘high’) concentrations on Gammarus fossarum. Different sublethal responses such as moulting, reproduction and the content of the energy-storage component glycogen were analysed. The drug mixture influenced the moulting behaviour of gammarids at both the ‘env’ and ‘high’ concentration levels, leading to a discontinuous increase of body length in successive moults, compared with the constant increase of body length in the control treatment. Moreover, the time between successive moults of animals exposed to the ‘env’ and ‘high’ pharmaceutical concentrations was decreased because of shortened intermoult periods. We observed no significant impact of the pharmaceuticals on reproduction. In addition, the content of glycogen was not significantly affected by the drug mixture. Permanent exposure of G. fossarum to a wider range of pharmaceuticals in natural aquatic systems may influence moulting behaviour and accompanied life-history parameters, followed by severe ecological consequences as gammarids play an important role in many freshwater ecosystems of the northern hemisphere.

Additional keywords: amphipoda, life-history traits, micropollutants.


Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by a PhD scholarship from Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes to Sabine Dietrich. We thank Jonathan Jeschke and Carola Winkelmann for advice, Mechthild Kredler for assistance in the laboratory, Jennifer Lohr for linguistic improvements and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript. The handling procedure of the amphipods was done in accordance with institutional guidelines.


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