Resilience of the order Amphipoda in the evolving Anthropocene -
Quantification of behavioral mechanisms under multiple stressors

In ecotoxicological test methods, sublethal endpoints and their standardization are becoming increasingly important. This is due to their enhanced sensitivity compared to lethal endpoints and their preventive character. In classical ecotoxicology, sublethal effects have little influence in the risk analysis of substances. Yet they represent a more real condition than classical ecotoxicological endpoints, which provide information about when it may be too late and not how substances affect the ecosystem.

Sublethal effects can be recorded in different ways, but with the Toxmate Lab, an online multi-species bio-monitoring device, we can record the movement behavior of invertebrates with high data throughput and free of human subjectivity and contribute to a more targeted risk assessment of substances. The project aims to find ways to make non-standard studies in ecotoxicology more reliable and relevant for risk assessment.

Locomotion behavior is a particularly under-studied field of ecotoxicology, especially in invertebrates, which are responsible for providing essential ecosystem functions and services. This research project will focus on sublethal effects in environmentally relevant concentrations of anthropogenic chemical pollution and, by comparing different field species of amphipods, start exactly where ecotoxicological questions arise - in the environment at the relevant organisms.

Contact:

Laura Johanna Soose

Ph.D. Student

phone +49-69 798-42150
e-mail: Soose@bio.uni-frankfurt.de

Coordinator:

Dr. Jonas Jourdan
phone +49-69 798-42149
e-mail: jourdan@bio.uni-frankfurt.de

Project partners:

Prof. Dr. Henner Hollert (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)

Dr. Andreas Schiwy (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)

Prof. Dr. Jörg Oehlmann (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)

Prof. Dr. Werner Brack (Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung Leipzig, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)

Dr. Judith Kochmann (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)

Prof. Dr. Sven Klimpel (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt)

Funded by the RobustNature Cluster of Excellence Initiative provided by the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany