The impact of pharmaceuticals on personality in sea anemones
Abstract
Pharmaceutical drugs along with other human derived contaminants are prevalent in natural
water bodies due to many anthropological factors and they eventually end up reaching
coastal waters. The pharmaceuticals have impacts on the behaviour and physiology of
humans, thus it is important to understand what impact they have on animals. The sea
anemone, Metridium senile, is found throughout the world such as in the shore regions of the
west coast of Sweden. Three commonly found pharmaceuticals, caffeine, propranolol and
diazepam were examined to understand their impact upon the sea anemones by measuring
risk-taking behaviour; also termed shyness and boldness. M. senile were exposed to 0.01
mg/L of caffeine, 0.01 mg/L of propranolol and 20 ng/L of diazepam in artificial sea water for
two weeks. Risk taking was measured as the startle response where anemones had a fast
jet of artificial seawater or drug-containing seawater directly jetted onto the oral disk of the
anemones. The time to re-extend the tentacles is a measure of boldness. Measures were
made prior to, during and after the two week drug exposure. In the first three weeks, from
baseline to the end of exposure week 2, the pharmaceuticals propranolol, diazepam and the
controls did not affect the startle response. In the final week, all anemones that were
exposed to one of the three drugs exhibited an increase in startle response in comparison to
the controls. Caffeine was the only drug that elicited a significantly faster startle response
than other pharmaceuticals compared to the control group. Therefore, caffeine exposure at
environmentally relevant concentrations may increase risk taking in M.senile.
Degree
Student essay
View/ Open
Date
2022-03-31Author
Wong, Lisa
Keywords
Metridium senile, animal behavior, animal personality, shyness, boldness, startle response, sea anemone, pharmaceutical drugs, caffeine, propranolol, diazepam.
Language
eng