Behavioural studies in ecotoxicology are increasing with techniques and endpoints used in pharmacology being translated to other vertebrate and invertebrate species. Despite this, data on the baseline behaviours of model organisms, and inter-species variability in behaviour are currently under-studied. This study assessed a range of behaviours associated with anxiety including swimming speed, phototaxis and thigmotaxis in a marine and freshwater amphipod (Echinogammarus marinus and Gammarus pulex). Differences in sensitivity to these assays were observed between species with E. marinus showing a greater sensitivity to the phototaxis assay than G. pulex, while in thigmotaxis assays G. pulex appeared better suited than E. marinus for measuring differences in the use of central zones. Significant inter-species differences were also observed in swimming patterns when breaking the data into ten second time bins but not when data was broken into two-minute time bins. The results of this study provide evidence of phototactic and thigmotactic behaviours in two model crustacean species with potential for use in behavioural ecotoxicology. Inter-species variability in sensitivity to behavioural assays highlights the importance of systematic assessment of baseline responses for all model species used in behavioural studies. Careful analysis of data is also required when performing behavioural studies so as not to lose sensitivity in your data.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 66. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 October 2018.
All research outputs
#775,102
of 31,883,038 outputs
Outputs from Aquatic Toxicology
#26
of 3,261 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#12,861
of 358,072 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Aquatic Toxicology
#3
of 56 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 31,883,038 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,261 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 56 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
