How Model Organisms and Model Uncertainty Impact Our Understanding of the Risk of Sublethal Impacts of Toxicants to Survival and Growth of Ecologically Relevant Species

Abstract

Understanding how sublethal impacts of toxicants affect population-relevant outcomes for organisms is challenging. We tested the hypotheses that the well-known sublethal impacts of methylmercury (MeHg) and a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB126) would have meaningful impacts on cohort growth and survival in yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) populations, that inclusion of model uncertainty is important for understanding the sublethal impacts of toxicants, and that a model organism (zebrafish Danio rerio) is an appropriate substitute for ecologically relevant species (yellow perch, killifish). Our simulations showed that MeHg did not have meaningful impacts on growth or survival in a simulated environment except to increase survival and growth in low mercury exposures in yellow perch and killifish. For PCB126, the high level of exposure resulted in lower survival for killifish only. Uncertainty analyses increased the variability and lowered average survival estimates across all species and toxicants, providing a more conservative estimate of risk. We demonstrate that using a model organism instead of the species of interest does not necessarily give the same results, suggesting that using zebrafish as a surrogate for yellow perch and killifish may not be appropriate for predicting contaminant impacts on larval cohort growth and survival in ecologically relevant species. Our analysis also reinforces the notion that uncertainty analyses are necessary in any modeling assessment of the impacts of toxicants on a population because it provides a more conservative, and arguably realistic, estimate of impact. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:2122–2133. © 2024 SETAC