Oil exposure alters social group cohesion in fish.

ABSTRACT: Many animal taxa live in groups to increase foraging and reproductive success and aid in predator avoidance. For fish, a large proportion of species spend all or part of their lives in groups, with group coordination playing an important role in the emergent benefits of group-living. Group cohesion can be altered by an array of factors, including exposure to toxic environmental contaminants. Oil spills are one of the most serious forms of pollution in aquatic systems, and while a range of effects of acute oil exposure on animal physiology have been demonstrated, sub-lethal effects on animal behavior are relatively under-studied. Here we used an open-field behavioral assay to explore influence of acute oil exposure on social behavior in a gregarious fish native to the Gulf of Mexico, Atlant

SUBMITTER: Armstrong T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6751191 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature