Daphnia Pesticide

Discussion Our results supported the alternate hypothesis that Atrazine affects the geotactic movement of Daphnia (Table 1). The pesticide we used disrupted the natural behaviors of Daphnia, and thus affected their performance. These results were expected since Atrazine is a powerful weed –killer that have the abilities to disrupt the nervous system in human and animals, this is why the Daphnia displayed a vertical movement when they placed in the Atrazine solution, which was an attempt to avoid it. Pesticides can also decrease the reproductive success of aquatic animals as demonstrated by the experiment conducted by Agatz (2013). The movement exhibited by the Atrazine group were unnatural when compared to the control group in distilled water. Whitman and Miller (1982) conducted an experiment that involved chemical responses of Daphnia magna to toxic chemicals. They found that the Daphnia produced a negative response by swimming a vertical distance. Daphnia exhibit is diel vertical migration …show more content…
In future study, a more commonly used pesticide could be tested on these small water invertebrates because if the pesticide we used in our experiment have the abilities to disrupt the normal activities of Daphnia, then more question can be raised about its impact on human. From our sample size, at least 30 daphnia died within half an hour after being exposed to Atrazine and 24 were immobile with their pigment changing from normal to a whiter color as they die off. Leromina et al. (2014) observed similar result s, but suggest that the effect of pesticides on aquatic invertebrates are more physical, rather than behavioral since it effected their