Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Daphnia’s phototaxis as an indicator in ecotoxicological studies: A review

Researchers reviewed how Daphnia — tiny freshwater crustaceans — use light-seeking behavior (phototaxis) as a stress indicator in water quality and toxicology studies, but cautioned that predators, food quality, and pigmentation can confuse results. The review recommends more standardized methods to improve the reliability of Daphnia phototaxis as a bioindicator of aquatic pollution.

2023 Aquatic Toxicology 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of artificial light at night on the mobility of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

Researchers investigated the effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus across four Italian rocky coast sites spanning a light intensity gradient from 0 to 25 lux, measuring density, size, and righting-response speed from April 2022 to February 2023. They found that ALAN reduced sea urchin density and slowed physiological response to stress in lit areas compared to dark areas, indicating significant negative impacts on these typically nocturnal organisms.

2023 Marine and Fishery Sciences (MAFIS) 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Phototactic Behavioral Responses of Mesozooplankton in the Barents Sea as an Indicator of Anthropogenic Impact

Researchers deployed a submersible digital holographic camera in the Barents Sea to measure mesozooplankton phototactic responses as bioindicators of water quality, finding that natural environmental variability did not mask behavioral responses but anthropogenic salt disturbances produced detectable signals.

2023 Water 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Phototropic Behavioral Responses of Zooplankton in Lake Baikal In Situ and during the Anthropogenic Impact Modeling

Researchers measured phototropic behavioral responses of Lake Baikal zooplankton in situ and during experimental anthropogenic impact modeling, finding that changes in behavior including risk-avoidance responses occurred at lower pollutant concentrations than survival or immobilization endpoints. Behavioral biomarkers are proposed as more sensitive early-warning indicators of environmental contamination than conventional toxicity tests.

2023 Water 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Diet affects body color and energy metabolism in the Baikal endemic amphipod Eulimnogammarus cyaneus maintained in laboratory conditions

Researchers tested how different diets affect the coloration and energy metabolism of an endemic Lake Baikal amphipod species maintained in the laboratory. The study is focused on optimizing care for this research organism rather than microplastic effects.

2021 Biological Communications 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and movement- exploring behavioural toxicity in Daphnia

Researchers investigated the behavioral toxicity of microplastics on Daphnia, moving beyond standard mortality and immobilization endpoints to capture subtler effects on movement. The study found that microplastic exposure alters locomotion in ways that standard tests would miss.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Zebrafish larvae show negative phototaxis to near-infrared light

Zebrafish larvae were found to avoid near-infrared light while being attracted to visible light, a finding relevant to behavioral toxicology tests that use different types of light to measure swimming activity. This has practical implications for how microplastic exposure studies using zebrafish are designed and interpreted.

2018 PLoS ONE 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Among-individual variation in the swimming behaviour of the amphipod Gammarus pulex under dark and light conditions

Researchers used high-speed video tracking to study how the small freshwater crustacean Gammarus pulex swims under different light conditions, finding enormous variation between individual animals that size and sex could not fully explain. They developed a new software tool and identified a "startle response" metric — a sudden speed drop when lights turn on — as a promising indicator for detecting pollution effects in aquatic toxicology studies.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Features of phototropic response of zooplankton to paired photostimulation under adverse environmental conditions

Researchers developed a paired photostimulation method — exposing zooplankton to two successive light pulses — that more reliably detects behavioral changes in Daphnia caused by pollutants including microplastics, outperforming single-stimulus methods and traditional survival-based bioindication for tracking aquatic toxicity.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Early Detection of Contamination with Microplastics by Changing the Phototaxis of Freshwater Mesozooplankton to Paired Photostimulation

Researchers used changes in phototaxis behavior of aquatic microorganisms as an early detection indicator for microplastic contamination, demonstrating that behavioral assays can provide sensitive, low-cost monitoring of plastic pollution in water.

2024 Биология внутренних вод
Article Tier 2

Warmer water, high light intensity, lithium and microplastics: Dangerous environmental combinations to zooplankton and Global Health?

Researchers examined the combined effects of warmer water, high light intensity, lithium, and microplastics on Daphnia magna, finding that environmental stressors like temperature and light amplify the long-term toxicity of lithium and lithium-microplastic mixtures to freshwater zooplankton.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 21 citations
Article Tier 2

ПАРАМЕТРЫ ПЛАВАТЕЛЬНОГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ДАФНИЙ КАК ИНДИКАТОРЫ ТОКСИЧНОСТИ СРЕДЫ

This review examines scientific publications on the swimming behavior parameters and patterns of Daphnia organisms used as ecotoxicological indicators of aquatic pollution, covering both organic and inorganic contaminants. The analysis reveals a large and growing body of research demonstrating the sensitivity and diversity of behavioral testing methods based on Daphnia swimming pattern assessment.

2024 Российский журнал прикладной экологии
Article Tier 2

Physiological and behavioural responses of aquatic organisms to microplastics and experimental warming

Researchers tested how microplastic exposure combined with different water temperatures affected the breathing, feeding, and movement of two common freshwater invertebrates. They found that while temperature had strong effects on all measured behaviors, microplastics caused additional changes in feeding rates and movement patterns that varied between species. The study highlights that the biological effects of microplastics may be amplified or altered under warming climate conditions.

2025 Environmental Pollution 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Contamination with Micro- and Nanoplastics Changes the Phototaxis of Euryhaline Zooplankton to Paired Photostimulation

A paired photostimulation behavioral assay using freshwater crustaceans was validated for detecting micro- and nanoplastic contamination in saltwater reservoirs, with zooplankton behavioral responsiveness serving as an early warning indicator. The method offers a rapid, biologically integrative approach to assessing plastic pollution in aquatic environments.

2022 Water 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Early Detection of Contamination with Microplastics by Changing the Phototaxis of Freshwater Mesozooplankton to Paired Photostimulation

Researchers used changes in phototaxis behavior — movement toward or away from light — in small aquatic organisms as an early detection signal for microplastic contamination, finding that exposure altered phototactic responses at sub-lethal concentrations. The behavioral endpoint proved more sensitive than conventional survival or reproduction endpoints, suggesting phototaxis as a useful indicator for early contamination detection.

2024 Inland Water Biology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and movement- exploring behavioural toxicity in Daphnia

Researchers explored behavioral toxicity endpoints for microplastic exposure in Daphnia, expanding beyond standard lethality and immobilization tests to include movement parameters as sensitive indicators of sublethal effects. Microplastic exposure altered swimming behavior in Daphnia at concentrations that did not cause visible mortality, demonstrating that behavioral assays detect impacts missed by conventional endpoints.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Microplastics affect assimilation efficiency in the freshwater amphipod Gammarus fossarum

Researchers examined how two types of microplastics affect the freshwater amphipod Gammarus fossarum. The study found that microplastic exposure reduced assimilation efficiency in these invertebrates, indicating that microplastic ingestion can interfere with nutrient uptake and energy processing in freshwater organisms.

2016 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 234 citations
Article Tier 2

Current environmental microplastic levels do not alter emergence behaviour in the intertidal gastropod Littorina littorea

Researchers found that environmentally relevant microplastic concentrations did not significantly alter the predator-avoidance emergence behavior of the common periwinkle (Littorina littorea), suggesting that behavioral impairment may not occur at current environmental exposure levels in this intertidal gastropod. The study calls for further behavioral research across a wider range of microplastic concentrations and species.

2020 Marine Pollution Bulletin 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Warming, temperature fluctuations and thermal evolution change the effects of microplastics at an environmentally relevant concentration

Researchers examined how warming temperatures, daily temperature fluctuations, and thermal evolutionary history influence the effects of microplastics on the water flea Daphnia magna. They found that while microplastics had almost no effect under standard laboratory temperature conditions, exposure under more realistic warming scenarios caused significant changes to reproduction, heart rate, and swimming behaviour. The study suggests that current risk assessments conducted at constant laboratory temperatures may substantially underestimate the ecological impact of microplastic pollution.

2021 Environmental Pollution 59 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessment of the Effects of Environmental Concentrations of Microplastics on the Aquatic Snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum

Researchers examined the effects of environmentally relevant microplastic concentrations on the freshwater snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum, assessing impacts on this benthic invertebrate in an understudied freshwater ecosystem context.

2021 Water Air & Soil Pollution 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Laterally biased diffusion of males of the water flea Daphnia magna

This study examined the swimming behavior of male Daphnia magna water fleas, finding they show directional swimming biases. Daphnia are standard test organisms for microplastic toxicity research, and understanding their natural behavior helps interpret results from ecotoxicology experiments.

2021
Review Tier 2

Influence of Microplastics on Freshwater Bivalves (Review)

This review analyzed studies on microplastic uptake, bioaccumulation, and biological effects in freshwater bivalves, which serve as both pollution sentinels and vectors for microplastic entry into food webs. The authors found consistent evidence for particle accumulation causing physiological stress, while calling for more standardized exposure protocols to improve cross-study comparability.

2024 Inland Water Biology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Polystyrene Microparticles and the Functional Traits of Invertebrates: A Case Study on Freshwater Shrimp Neocardina heteropoda

Researchers exposed freshwater shrimp to polystyrene microplastics and found measurable changes in behavioral and physiological functional traits, contributing evidence that microplastic pollution poses risks to freshwater invertebrate communities beyond the marine environments typically studied.

2022 Fishes 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Can short exposure to polyethylene microplastics change tadpoles’ behavior? A study conducted with neotropical tadpole species belonging to order anura (Physalaemus cuvieri)

Researchers exposed Physalaemus cuvieri tadpoles to polyethylene microplastics for 7 days and found altered locomotion behavior — reduced activity and increased erratic swimming — suggesting that short-term microplastic exposure can impair motor behavior in amphibians.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 83 citations