Wetland defense: naturally occurring pesticide resistance in zooplankton populations protects the stability of aquatic communities.

Abstract

Anthropogenic stressors are ubiquitous and have been implicated in worldwide declines of terrestrial and aquatic species. Pesticides are one such stressor that can have profound effects on aquatic communities by directly affecting sensitive species and indirectly affecting other species via trophic cascades, which can alter ecosystem function. However, there is growing evidence that non-target species can evolve increased resistance. When such species are important drivers of the food web, then evolved resistance should help buffer communities from the effects of pesticides. To examine this possibility, we cultured four populations of the common zooplankton Daphnia pulex that we previously demonstrated were either sensitive or resistant to a common insecticide (i.e., chlorpyrifos) due to their proximity to agriculture. Using outdoor mesocosms that contained identical aquatic communities of phytoplankton, periphyton, and leopard frog tadpoles (Lithobates pipiens), we manipulated four D. pulex populations and four insecticide concentrations. As we monitored the communities for nearly 3months, we found that the insecticide caused direct mortality of D. pulex in communities containing sensitive populations, and this led to a bloom of phytoplankton. In contrast, the insecticide caused much less direct mortality in communities containing resistant D. pulex populations, and the trophic cascade was prevented under low to moderate insecticide concentrations. Across all insecticide treatments, survivorship of leopard frogs was approximately 72% in communities with resistant D. pulex but only 35% in communities with sensitive D. pulex. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to use naturally occurring population variation in insecticide resistance to show that the evolution of pesticide resistance in zooplankton can mitigate the effects of insecticide-induced trophic cascades, and that this outcome can have far-reaching community effects.