Data from: Incorporating evolutionary insights to improve ecotoxicology for freshwater species

Ecotoxicological studies have provided extensive insights into the lethal and sublethal effects of environmental contaminants. These insights are critical for environmental regulatory frameworks, which rely on knowledge of toxicity for developing policies to manage contaminants. While varied approaches have been applied to ecotoxicological questions, perspectives related to the evolutionary history of focal species or populations have received little consideration. Here, we evaluate chloride toxicity from the perspectives of both macroevolution and contemporary evolution. First, by mapping chloride toxicity values derived from the literature onto a phylogeny of macroinvertebrates, fish, and amphibians, we tested whether macroevolutionary relationships across species and taxa are predictive of chloride sensitivity. Next, we conducted chloride exposure tests for two amphibian species to assess whether potential contemporary evolutionary change associated with environmental chloride contamination influences chloride sensitivity across local populations. We show that explicitly evaluating both macro- and contemporary evolution can provide important and even qualitatively different insights from those obtained via traditional ecotoxicological studies. While macroevolutionary perspectives can help forecast toxicological endpoints for species with untested sensitivities, contemporary evolutionary perspectives demonstrate the need to consider the environmental context of exposed populations when measuring toxicity. Accounting for divergence among populations of interest can provide more accurate and relevant information related to the sensitivity of populations that may be evolving in response to selection from contaminant exposure. Our data shows that approaches accounting for and specifically examining variation among natural populations should become standard practice in ecotoxicology.

生态毒理学研究已针对环境污染物的致死与亚致死效应，提供了大量深入见解。这些见解对于环境监管框架至关重要，后者需依托毒性相关知识制定污染物管理政策。尽管已有多种方法被用于解答生态毒理学相关问题，但针对焦点物种或种群演化历史的相关视角却极少受到关注。本研究从宏演化（macroevolution）与当代演化（contemporary evolution）双重视角评估氯化物毒性：首先，我们将文献中获取的氯化物毒性数值映射至大型无脊椎动物、鱼类及两栖类的系统发育树中，以此检验跨物种与类群的宏演化关联是否能够预测氯化物敏感性；其次，我们针对两种两栖类物种开展氯化物暴露实验，以评估与环境氯化物污染相关的潜在当代演化变化，是否会影响不同本地种群的氯化物敏感性。本研究表明，同时明确开展宏演化与当代演化视角的评估，能够获得传统生态毒理学研究无法比拟的重要见解，甚至在结论性质上也存在差异。尽管宏演化视角可助力预测敏感性尚未被测定的物种的毒理学终点，但当代演化视角则表明，在测定毒性时需考量暴露种群所处的环境背景。对目标种群间的分化加以考量，能够为因污染物暴露的选择压力而发生演化的种群的敏感性评估，提供更为精准且相关的信息。本研究数据表明，纳入并专门探究自然种群间差异的研究方法，应当成为生态毒理学领域的标准实践流程。