Variable Background Flow on Aquatic Toxicant Exposure Alters Foraging Patterns on Crayfish

Climate change is expected to alter hydrological cycles on global and regional scales, impacting groundwater and surface water inputs to stream habitats. In the midwestern United States, the volume and frequency of inputs are expected to become increasingly variable. This region has a high incidence of agriculture, creating enormous potential for transport of pesticides and herbicides into aquatic ecosystems. Metolachlor, an herbicide for corn and soybean crops, has been demonstrated to contaminate surface water and groundwater in the region. This study examines the impact of variable flow conditions on the toxicity of environmentally relevant concentrations of metolachlor in a macroinvertebrate found in midwestern streams, the rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus). Changes in crayfish foraging behavior were analyzed using a Mixed Model ANCOVA. Under toxicant exposure, crayfish significantly increased their consumption of macrophytes, but only under the variable flow regime. Thus, the increased variability in toxicant exposure impacted crayfish foraging behavior more than other flow regimes. This significant interaction between flow regime and metolachlor exposure suggests that the greater variability in toxicant inputs to streams may lead to more severe changes in behavior for exposed organisms.