Evidence grows that standard toxicity testing might underestimate the environmental risk of neurotoxic insecticides. Behavioural endpoints such as locomotion and mobility have been suggested as sensitive and ecologically relevant additions to the standard tested endpoints. Possible interactive effects of chemicals and additional stressors are typically overlooked in standardised testing. Therefore, we aimed to investigate how concurrent exposure to environmental stressors (increased temperature and predation cues) and a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)-modulating insecticide (‘sulfoxaflor’) impact across a range of conventional and non-conventional endpoints. We used a multifactorial experimental design encompassing three stressors, sulfoxaflor (2.0–110 µg/L), predation risk (presence/absence of predatory cues), and elevated temperature (20 °C and 23 °C), yielding a total of 24 distinct treatment conditions. Additional stressors did not change the sensitivity of to sulfoxaflor. To assess potential additive effects, we applied an Independent Action (IA) model to predict the impact on eight endpoints, including conventional endpoints (growth, survival, total emergence, and emergence time) and less conventional endpoints (the size of the adults, swimming abilities and exploration behaviour). For the conventional endpoints, observed effects were either lower than expected or well-predicted by the IA model. In contrast, we found greater than predicted effects of predation cues and temperature in combination with sulfoxaflor on adult size, larval exploration, and swimming behaviour. However, in contrast to the non-conventional endpoints, no conventional endpoints detected interactive effects of the neurotoxic insecticide and the environmental stressors. Acknowledging these interactions, increasing ecological context of ecotoxicological test systems may, therefore, advance environmental risk analysis and interpretation as the safe environmental concentrations of neurotoxic insecticides depend on the context of both the test organism and its environment.

中文翻译：

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在多重胁迫环境中，非常规终点显示出比传统终点更高的氟啶虫胺对河岸摇蚊的毒性


越来越多的证据表明，标准毒性测试可能低估了神经毒性杀虫剂的环境风险。诸如运动和流动性等行为终点已被建议作为标准测试终点的敏感且生态相关的补充。在标准化测试中，化学物质和额外压力源可能产生的相互作用通常被忽视。因此，我们的目的是研究同时暴露于环境压力源（温度升高和捕食线索）和烟碱乙酰胆碱受体（nAChR）调节杀虫剂（“氟啶虫胺”）对一系列传统和非常规终点的影响。我们采用了多因素实验设计，包括三种应激源：氟啶虫胺 (2.0–110 µg/L)、捕食风险（存在/不存在捕食线索）和升高温度（20 °C 和 23 °C），总共产生了 24 个不同的治疗条件。额外的压力源不会改变对氟啶虫胺的敏感性。为了评估潜在的累加效应，我们应用独立行动（IA）模型来预测对八个终点的影响，包括传统终点（生长、存活、总羽化和羽化时间）和不太传统的终点（成虫体型、游泳能力）能力和探索行为）。对于传统终点，观察到的效果要么低于 IA 模型的预期，要么得到了良好的预测。相比之下，我们发现捕食线索和温度与氟啶虫胺结合对成虫体型、幼虫探索和游泳行为的影响大于预期。然而，与非常规终点相反，没有常规终点检测到神经毒性杀虫剂和环境压力源的相互作用。 因此，认识到这些相互作用，增加生态毒理学测试系统的生态背景可能会促进环境风险分析和解释，因为神经毒性杀虫剂的安全环境浓度取决于测试生物体及其环境的背景。