Biomarkers of Ecotoxicological Effects in Social Insects

Abstract

Complementing ecotoxicity testing, a biomarker approach is widely used in ecological risk assessment programs. Biomarkers provide information about early warning biological responses to one or several chemical pollutants and can be revealed in an organism or its products. Biochemical, morphological or behavioral parameters of living organisms can be set to biomarkers of exposure, effect or susceptibility or biomarkers of defense and damage. This concept is more developed within aquatic than terrestrial ecotoxicology and social hymenopterans insect (ants, bees, bumblebees, wasps and termites), which are already actively used as bioindicator species, can be furtherly studied for revealing novel sets of biomarkers. They can provide sufficient information about ecosystem health because social insects usually occupy high trophic levels and are important predators, pollinators, scavengers and ecological engineers. Social insect colonies stay in a certain place (except army ants), which makes them excellent model group for biomarker studies on ecotoxicological effects in nature. Despite their high ecological significance, wide spread distribution and sampling convenience, social insects are not intensively studied within biomonitoring programs and still not widely used as sentinel species. Revealing direct biological responses of social insects to toxic substances at the different levels of biological organization, systematization of scientific data and creating of simplified recommendations for practical biomonitoring purposes may facilitate progress in current terrestrial ecotoxicology.