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Mixed Phylogenetic Signal in Fish Toxicity Data across Chemical Classes
Citation:
Hylton, A., Y. Chiari, I. Capellini, M. Barron, AND S. Glaberman. Mixed Phylogenetic Signal in Fish Toxicity Data across Chemical Classes. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS. Ecological Society of America, Ithaca, NY, 28(3):605-611, (2018).
Impact/Purpose:
We tested the hypothesis that fish species that are more closely related will exhibit greater similarity in their level of chemical sensitivity. Determining phylogenetic-toxicity relationships may provide a way to improve cross species extrapolation and prediction of chemical sensitivity in aquatic organisms but additional research is needed. The audience is scientists working in the area of ecological risk assessment. The relevance and impact for EPA is this is a pilot to determine if phylogeny could be used to identify species sensitivity. The findings suggest there is opportunity, but more research is needed for its application.
Description:
Chemical use in society is growing rapidly and is one of the five major pressures on biodiversity worldwide. Since empirical toxicity studies of pollutants generally focus on a handful of model organisms, reliable approaches are needed to assess sensitivity to chemicals across the wide variety of species in the environment. Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCM) offer a promising approach for toxicity extrapolation incorporating known evolutionary relationships among species. If phylogenetic signal in toxicity data is high, i.e., closely related species are more similarly sensitive as compared to distantly related species, PCM could ultimately help predict species sensitivity when toxicity data are lacking. Here, we present the largest ever test of phylogenetic signal in toxicity data by combining phylogenetic data from fish with acute mortality data for 42 chemicals spanning 10 different chemical classes. Phylogenetic signal is high for some chemicals, particularly organophosphate pesticides, but not necessarily for many chemicals in other classes (e.g., metals, organochlorines). These results demonstrate that PCM may be useful for toxicity extrapolation in untested species for those chemicals with clear phylogenetic signal. This study provides a framework for using PCM to understand the patterns and causes of variation in species sensitivity to pollutants.
