Uncovering multiscale structure in the variability of larval zebrafish navigation.

Animals chain movements into long-lived motor strategies, exhibiting variability across scales that reflects the interplay between internal states and environmental cues. To reveal structure in such variability, we build Markov models of movement sequences that bridges across time scales and enables a quantitative comparison of behavioral phenotypes among individuals. Applied to larval zebrafish responding to diverse sensory cues, we uncover a hierarchy of long-lived motor strategies, dominated by changes in orientation distinguishing cruising versus wandering strategies. Environmental cues induce preferences along these modes at the population level: while fish cruise in the light, they wander in response to aversive stimuli, or in search for appetitive prey. As our method encodes the behavioral dynamics of each individual fish in the transitions among coarse-grained motor strategies, we use it to uncover a hierarchical structure in the phenotypic variability that reflects exploration-exploitation trade-offs. Across a wide range of sensory cues, a major source of variation among fish is driven by prior and/or immediate exposure to prey that induces exploitation phenotypes. A large degree of variability that is not explained by environmental cues unravels motivational states that override the sensory context to induce contrasting exploration-exploitation phenotypes. Altogether, by extracting the timescales of motor strategies deployed during navigation, our approach exposes structure among individuals and reveals internal states tuned by prior experience.

Uncovering multiscale structure in the variability of larval zebrafish navigation.

Animals chain movements into long-lived motor strategies, resulting in variability that ultimately reflects the interplay between internal states and environmental cues. To reveal structure in such variability, we build models that bridges across time scales that enable a quantitative comparison of behavioral phenotypes among individuals. Applied to larval zebrafish exposed to diverse sensory cues, we uncover a hierarchy of long-lived motor strategies, dominated by changes in orientation distinguishing cruising and wandering strategies. Environmental cues induce preferences along these modes at the population level: while fish cruise in the light, they wander in response to aversive (dark) stimuli or in search for prey. Our method enables us to encode the behavioral dynamics of each individual fish in the transitions among coarse-grained motor strategies. By doing so, we uncover a hierarchical structure to the phenotypic variability that corresponds to exploration-exploitation trade-offs. Within a wide range of sensory cues, a major source of variation among fish is driven by prior and immediate exposure to prey that induces exploitation phenotypes. However, a large degree of variability is unexplained by environmental cues, pointing to hidden states that override the sensory context to induce contrasting exploration-exploitation phenotypes. Altogether, our approach extracts the timescales of motor strategies deployed during navigation, exposing undiscovered structure among individuals and pointing to internal states tuned by prior experience.

The adaptor protein 2 (AP2) complex modulates habituation and behavioral selection across multiple pathways and time windows.

Animals constantly integrate sensory information with prior experience to select behavioral responses appropriate to the current situation. Genetic factors supporting this behavioral flexibility are often disrupted in neuropsychiatric conditions, such as the autism-linked ap2s1 gene which supports acoustically evoked habituation learning. ap2s1 encodes an AP2 endocytosis adaptor complex subunit, although its behavioral mechanisms and importance have been unclear. Here, we show that multiple AP2 subunits regulate acoustically evoked behavior selection and habituation learning in zebrafish. Furthermore, ap2s1 biases escape behavior choice in sensory modality-specific manners, and broadly regulates action selection across sensory contexts. We demonstrate that the AP2 complex functions acutely in the nervous system to modulate acoustically evoked habituation, suggesting several spatially and/or temporally distinct mechanisms through which AP2 regulates escape behavior selection and performance. Altogether, we show the AP2 complex coordinates action selection across diverse contexts, providing a vertebrate model for ap2s1's role in human conditions including autism spectrum disorder.

Are tolerance processes limiting the responses of Hediste diversicolor to cadmium exposure? A multimarker approach.

Cadmium (Cd) is considered a priority hazardous substance under the European Community Directive 2013/39 due to its ecotoxicity. The ragworm Hediste diversicolor (O.F. Müller, 1776), a common species in estuaries and coastal lagoons, plays an important ecological role in these ecosystems and is a suitable bioindicator of environmental chemical contamination. In this study, H. diversicolor was chosen as an ecotoxicological model with the aim of evaluating the responses to Cd contamination, considering a multi-biomarker approach (mortality, biometry, behaviour, Cd bioaccumulation, oxidative stress and damage, and energy metabolism). Also, the hypothesis of different tolerances resulting in different responses was evaluated, by collecting worms from three systems distinctly impacted by metal contamination (Mondego estuary, Óbidos Lagoon and Sado estuary - Portugal). Animals were exposed under laboratory conditions to cadmium (10, 50 and 100 µg/L), for 10 days. Significant differences were observed in responses amongst worms originating from the different sites. Organisms from the less impacted systems revealed greater effects on mortality, biomass decrease and burrowing behaviour, as well as higher bioaccumulation potential, after exposure to Cd. Biochemical and behaviour impairments were observed as a consequence of Cd exposure, although not in a concentration-dependant manner. The results obtained in this study reinforce the importance of integrating endpoint responses, at the individual and sub-individual levels, to assess potential changes induced by pollutants in the physiological status and fitness of H. diversicolor and help to predict what their ecological consequences might be.

Effects of wildfire ash on the growth and biochemical profiles of the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor.

Wildfires are a social and environmental concern to the world due to their many adverse effects, including risk to the public health and security, economic damages in prevention and fight, ecosystems pollution, land usage sustainability, and biodiversity. In the Mediterranean region, these events have increased in the last years. Although several studies evaluated the impacts of the wildfires on the structure and function of the ecosystems and their communities, there is a lack of information at the biochemical level beyond the toxicological effects to the organisms. So, aiming to evaluate the potential toxic and biochemical effects of pine and eucalypt ash from high and low severity burned areas in the aquatic environments, L. minor growth, fatty acid and carbohydrate profiles were studied. Data showed that the wildfires ash from high severity burned areas are more toxic, with a higher growth inhibition than when exposed to ash from low severity burned areas. Considering the ash from low severity burned areas, eucalypt ash revealed to be more noxious to the macrophyte than pine ash. Furthermore, it was observed a decrease in the diversity and abundance of fatty acids content, comparing with the control. An opposite trend was observed in carbohydrates which increased with the organisms' exposure to almost all ash types, except in case of the organisms exposed to eucalypt ash from high severity burned areas, where carbohydrate content decreased.

Call the Eckols: Present and Future Potential Cancer Therapies.

In recent years, an increased interest in marine macroalgae bioactive compounds has been recorded due to their benefits to human health and welfare. Several of their bioactivities have been demonstrated, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antibacterial and antiviral behavior. However, there still lacks a clear definition regarding how these compounds exert their bioactive properties. Of all the bioactive compounds derived from marine macroalgae, attention has been focused on phenolic compounds, specifically in phlorotannins, due to their potential for biomedical applications. Phlorotannins are a diverse and wide group of phenolic compounds, with several structural variations based on the monomer phloroglucinol. Among the diverse phlorotannin structures, the eckol-family of phlorotannins demonstrates remarkable bioactivity, notably their anti-tumoral properties. However, the molecular mechanisms by which this activity is achieved remain elusive and sparse. This review focuses on the described molecular mechanisms of anti-tumoral effects by the eckol family of compounds and the future prospects of these molecules for potential application in oncology therapies.

Assessment of metal exposure (uranium and copper) in fatty acids and carbohydrate profiles of Calamoceras marsupus larvae (Trichoptera) and Alnus glutinosa leaf litter.

Physiological changes were explored in fatty acids (FA) and carbohydrate (CHO) composition in the shredder Calamoceras marsupus larvae (Trichoptera) and leaf litter (C. marsupus food) exposed to copper and uranium under natural and experimental conditions. We measured FA and CHO content in leaf litter and larvae specimens from reference and impacted streams, and exposed for 5 weeks to four realistic environmental concentrations of copper (35 µg L-1 and 70 µg L-1) and uranium (25 µg L-1 and 50 µg L-1). Regarding FA, (1) leaf litter had a reduced polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) content in metal treatments, s (14 to 33% of total FA), compared to natural conditions (≥39% of total FA). Leaf litter exposed to uranium also differed in saturated FA (SFA) composition, with lower values in natural conditions and higher values under low uranium concentrations. (2) C. marsupus had/showed low PUFA content under Cu and U exposure, particularly in high uranium concentrations. Detritivores also decreased in PUFA under exposure to both metals, particularly in high uranium concentrations. On the other hand, (1) microorganisms of the biofilm colonizing leaf litter differed in CHO composition between natural (impacted and reference) and experimental conditions, with glucose and galactose being consistently the most abundant sugars, found in different amounts under copper or uranium exposure; (2) CHO of detritivores showed similar high galactose and fucose concentrations in contaminated streams and high copper treatments, whereas low copper treatment showed distinct CHO profiles, with higher mannose, glucose, arabinose, and fucose concentrations. Our study provides evidence of metal exposure effects on FA and CHO contents at different trophic levels, which might alter the quality of food flow in trophic webs.

Marine macroalgae as a feasible and complete resource to address and promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Because the world's population is increasing, science-based policies are needed to promote sustainable global development. It is important to maintain and restore the environment and help human society overcome the risks from industrialization and unsustainable exponential growth. In recent years, many studies have highlighted that macroalgae represent a key marine resource for ecological and sustainable living, thus helping to address today's global problems, such as water pollution, ocean acidification, and global warming. Macroalgae show the potential to provide innovative, ecofriendly, and nutritious food sources and natural compounds for various industries, such as biomedical, food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. This review discusses how macroalgae can help us today and how they can promote a more sustainable way of life in the future. It also discusses the potential danger for ecosystems and the global population if these organisms are not part of the solution but part of the problem. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1148-1161. © 2022 SETAC.

Seaweeds as Valuable Sources of Essential Fatty Acids for Human Nutrition.

The overexploitation of terrestrial habitats, combined with the ever-growing demand for food, has led to the search for alternative food sources. The importance of seaweeds as food sources has been growing, and their potential as sources of fatty acids (FA) make seaweeds an interesting feedstock for the food and nutraceutical industries. The aim of this study is to assess the potential of five red seaweeds (Asparagospis armata, Calliblepharis jubata, Chondracanthus teedei var. lusitanicus, Gracilaria gracilis, and Grateloupia turuturu) and three brown seaweeds (Colpomenia peregrina, Sargassum muticum and Undaria pinnatifida), harvested in central Portugal, as effective sources of essential FA for food or as dietary supplements. FA were extracted from the biomass, transmethylated to methyl esters, and analyzed through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. G. gracilis presented the highest content of saturated fatty acids (SFA) (41.49 mg·g-1), whereas C. jubata exhibited the highest content of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) (28.56 mg·g-1); the three G. turuturu life cycle stages presented prominent SFA and HUFA contents. Omega-6/omega-3 ratios were assessed and, in combination with PUFA+HUFA/SFA ratios, it is suggested that C. jubata and U. pinnatifida may be the algae with highest nutraceutical potential, promoting health benefits and contributing to a balanced dietary intake of fatty acids.

The Evolution Road of Seaweed Aquaculture: Cultivation Technologies and the Industry 4.0.

Seaweeds (marine macroalgae) are autotrophic organisms capable of producing many compounds of interest. For a long time, seaweeds have been seen as a great nutritional resource, primarily in Asian countries to later gain importance in Europe and South America, as well as in North America and Australia. It has been reported that edible seaweeds are rich in proteins, lipids and dietary fibers. Moreover, they have plenty of bioactive molecules that can be applied in nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic areas. There are historical registers of harvest and cultivation of seaweeds but with the increment of the studies of seaweeds and their valuable compounds, their aquaculture has increased. The methodology of cultivation varies from onshore to offshore. Seaweeds can also be part of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), which has great opportunities but is also very challenging to the farmers. This multidisciplinary field applied to the seaweed aquaculture is very promising to improve the methods and techniques; this area is developed under the denominated industry 4.0.

Early-Life Social Experience Shapes Social Avoidance Reactions in Larval Zebrafish.

Social experiences greatly define subsequent social behavior. Lack of such experiences, especially during critical phases of development, can severely impede the ability to behave adequately in social contexts. To date, it is not well characterized how early-life social isolation leads to social deficits and impacts development. In many model species, it is challenging to fully control social experiences, because they depend on parental care. Moreover, complex social behaviors involve multiple sensory modalities, contexts, and actions. Hence, when studying social isolation effects, it is important to parse apart social deficits from general developmental effects, such as abnormal motor learning. Here, we characterized how social experiences during early development of zebrafish larvae modulate their social behavior at 1 week of age, when social avoidance reactions can be measured as discrete swim events. We show that raising larvae in social isolation leads to enhanced social avoidance, in terms of the distance at which larvae react to one another and the strength of swim movement they use. Specifically, larvae raised in isolation use a high-acceleration escape swim, the short latency C-start, more frequently during social interactions. These behavioral differences are absent in non-social contexts. By ablating the lateral line and presenting the fish with local water vibrations, we show that lateral line inputs are both necessary and sufficient to drive enhanced social avoidance reactions. Taken together, our results show that social experience during development is a critical factor in shaping mechanosensory avoidance reactions in larval zebrafish.

Seaweed's Bioactive Candidate Compounds to Food Industry and Global Food Security.

The world population is continuously growing, so it is important to keep producing food in a sustainable way, especially in a way that is nutritious and in a sufficient quantity to overcome global needs. Seaweed grows, and can be cultivated, in seawater and generally does not compete for arable land and freshwater. Thus, the coastal areas of the planet are the most suitable for seaweed production, which can be an alternative to traditional agriculture and can thus contribute to a reduced carbon footprint. There are evolving studies that characterize seaweed's nutritional value and policies that recognize them as food, and identify the potential benefits and negative factors that may be produced or accumulated by seaweed, which are, or can be, dangerous for human health. Seaweeds have a high nutritional value along with a low caloric input and with the presence of fibers, proteins, omega 3 and 6 unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Moreover, several seaweed sub-products have interesting features to the food industry. Therefore, the focus of this review is in the performance of seaweed as a potential alternative and as a safe food source. Here described is the nutritional value and concerns relating to seaweed consumption, and also how seaweed-derived compounds are already commercially explored and available in the food industry and the usage restrictions to safeguard them as safe food additives for human consumption.

Internal state dynamics shape brainwide activity and foraging behaviour.

The brain has persistent internal states that can modulate every aspect of an animal's mental experience1-4. In complex tasks such as foraging, the internal state is dynamic5-8. Caenorhabditis elegans alternate between local search and global dispersal5. Rodents and primates exhibit trade-offs between exploitation and exploration6,7. However, fundamental questions remain about how persistent states are maintained in the brain, which upstream networks drive state transitions and how state-encoding neurons exert neuromodulatory effects on sensory perception and decision-making to govern appropriate behaviour. Here, using tracking microscopy to monitor whole-brain neuronal activity at cellular resolution in freely moving zebrafish larvae9, we show that zebrafish spontaneously alternate between two persistent internal states during foraging for live prey (Paramecia). In the exploitation state, the animal inhibits locomotion and promotes hunting, generating small, localized trajectories. In the exploration state, the animal promotes locomotion and suppresses hunting, generating long-ranging trajectories that enhance spatial dispersion. We uncover a dorsal raphe subpopulation with persistent activity that robustly encodes the exploitation state. The exploitation-state-encoding neurons, together with a multimodal trigger network that is associated with state transitions, form a stochastically activated nonlinear dynamical system. The activity of this oscillatory network correlates with a global retuning of sensorimotor transformations during foraging that leads to marked changes in both the motivation to hunt for prey and the accuracy of motor sequences during hunting. This work reveals an important hidden variable that shapes the temporal structure of motivation and decision-making.

Copper sulphate impact on the antioxidant defence system of the marine bivalves Cerastoderma edule and Scrobicularia plana.

Anthropogenic activities, such as agriculture and industrial activities, are a main source of pollution contributing for the degradation of water quality and thus affecting the living organisms of aquatic systems. Copper is widely used at these practices being often released into the aquatic systems and may cause negative effects in its communities. This study proposes to determine the effects of copper in the antioxidant defence system of two size classes (big and small sizes) of Scrobicularia plana and Cerastoderma edule, two marine bivalve species with commercial interest. It was observed the behaviour activity of the organisms during the exposure to copper sulphate (CS) and was determined the enzymatic activities of glutathione-S-transferases (GST), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (both selenium-dependent (SeGPx) and total (tGPx)) in the muscle tissue (foot). Lipid peroxidation (LPO) was evaluated through thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) measurement in the foot. Changes in the behaviour and enzymatic activity were observed. Lipid peroxidation was observed at C. edule and S. plana big and small size classes, respectively, according to TBARS levels. The foot showed to be a good tissue to be used in biochemical analysis to detect the presence of toxicants.

Microplastics in gentoo penguins from the Antarctic region.

There is growing evidence that microplastic pollution (<5 mm in size) is now present in virtually all marine ecosystems, even in remote areas, such as the Arctic and the Antarctic. Microplastics have been found in water and sediments of the Antarctic but little is known of their ingestion by higher predators and mechanisms of their entry into Antarctic marine food webs. The goal of this study was to assess the occurrence of microplastics in a top predator, the gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua from the Antarctic region (Bird Island, South Georgia and Signy Island, South Orkney Islands) and hence assess the potential for microplastic transfer through Antarctic marine food webs. To achieve this, the presence of microplastics in scats (as a proof of ingestion) was investigated to assess the viability of a non-invasive approach for microplastic analyses in Antarctic penguins. A total of 80 penguin scats were collected and any microplastics they contained were extracted. A total of 20% of penguin scats from both islands contained microplastics, consisting mainly of fibers and fragments with different sizes and polymer composition (mean abundance of microplastics: 0.23 ± 0.53 items individual-1 scat, comprising seven different polymers), which were lower values than those found for seabirds in other regions worldwide. No significant differences in microplastic numbers in penguin scats between the two regions were detected. These data highlight the need for further assessment of the levels of microplastics in this sensitive region of the planet, specifically studies on temporal trends and potential effects on penguins and other organisms in the Antarctic marine food web.

Biochemical impacts in adult and juvenile farmed European seabass and gilthead seabream from semi-intensive aquaculture of southern European estuarine systems.

The nutritional value and developmental variations of cultured fish were assessed for European seabass and gilthead seabream specimens reared in semi-intensive aquaculture systems in two Portuguese estuaries. Quantification of total protein and of carbohydrate and fatty acid profiles was carried out to determine differences between the composition of the same species in two development stages reared in four distinct farms. A significant influence of the rearing site on the nutritional composition of the same species was found for adult European seabass regarding saturated, monounsaturated and highly unsaturated fatty acids contents, both between estuaries and within each estuary. In gilthead seabream, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and highly unsaturated fatty acids content were also influenced by the rearing site. Carbohydrate analysis showed a significant influence of the rearing site on free sugar and polysaccharide content in fish of both species, and there was no influence on the species' protein content. Differences in fatty acid and carbohydrate content among juvenile and adult stages were found for all the groups studied. The present study supported the existing evidence that semi-intensive rearing systems are subjected to the variability of extrinsic factors in the rearing sites, influencing the nutritional value of the same species, namely regarding lipid and carbohydrate profiles, depending on the production site. From a consumer's perspective, such differences may come as a disadvantage of the rearing method, as it is expected for a product to provide equal nutritional properties and benefits regardless its origin, especially within the same country.

Impacts of S-metolachlor and terbuthylazine in fatty acid and carbohydrate composition of the benthic clam Scrobicularia plana.

S-metolachlor (SMOC) and terbuthylazine (TBA) are herbicides that commonly appear as active ingredients (a.i.) in the composition of plant protection products. In a previous work, experimental bioassays were performed using those chemicals to find suitable molecular biomarkers to assess its toxicity to the non-target species Scrobicularia plana. The results obtained showed that the pollutants produce mortality and biochemical changes at the species, namely in protein contents and enzymatic activity levels. Thus, for a better understanding of the total biochemical impacts of those pollutants in S. plana, the composition of fatty acids (FA) and carbohydrates (CH) of the survival organisms are investigated here. In addition, since this species is edible its biochemical profile is directly related to its nutritious quality, which is analysed in this study. Furthermore, the analyses were performed in two types of tissue - the muscle and visceral mass of each survival organism. The greatest changes in FA composition are observable in small size class, being the most sensitive size class both at the toxicological and biochemical level. FA contents are higher in small organisms, both at the field and under laboratory conditions, being the disparity between size classes higher in visceral masses than in muscles. Indeed, muscles adequately represent the FA profile since those molecules appear in higher content in this tissue compared to visceral masses, becoming the better indicator tissue of biochemical changes. Besides, using muscles, less amount of biomass is needed, so it turns out to be the most cost-effective tissue to be used as endpoint in future studies. FA profiles observed at SMOC and TBA exposure are different, organisms from TBA exposure presenting a lower nutritious quality, in terms of FA abundance and diversity, than the organisms exposed to SMOC. Still, SMOC produces reductions of HUFA, essential fatty acids that cannot be synthesized by the species. Moreover, HUFA (mostly EPA and DHA) occupied the greatest part of the FA composition of organisms exposed to the control treatments and to TBA; however, the decreases of HUFA caused by the SMOC exposure change the profiles and make SFA the most dominant group. These findings represent a risk of low occurrence of essential fatty acids in entire aquatic environments exposed to the chemicals studied. Regarding CH, glucose is the only monosaccharide found in S. plana which was expected since glycogen is the main polysaccharide in animal tissues. In general, the glucose content increases with a concentration of pollutants, whereas the glycogen concentration decreases, suggesting that the glucose is being released as a response to chemical stress. Thus, this work presents tools to assess biochemical impacts of S-metolachlor and terbuthylazine in aquatic systems and to goes deeper in the knowledge of these pollutants' toxicity to non-target species to predict its propagation through aquatic trophic webs.

Synthesis and biological activity of a potent optically pure autoinducer-2 quorum sensing agonist.

Quorum sensing (QS) regulates population-dependent bacterial behaviours, such as toxin production, biofilm formation and virulence. Autoinducer-2 (AI-2) is to date the only signalling molecule known to foster inter-species bacterial communication across distantly related bacterial species. In this work, the synthesis of pure enantiomers of C4-propoxy-HPD and C4-ethoxy-HPD, known AI-2 analogues, has been developed. The optimised synthesis is efficient, reproducible and short. The (4S) enantiomer of C4-propoxy-HPD was the most active compound being approximately twice as efficient as (4S)-DPD and ten-times more potent than the (4R) enantiomer. Additionally, the specificity of this analogue to bacteria with LuxP receptors makes it a good candidate for clinical applications, because it is not susceptible to scavenging by LsrB-containing bacteria that degrade the natural AI-2. All in all, this study provides a new brief and effective synthesis of isomerically pure analogues for QS modulation that include the most active AI-2 agonist described so far.

Clusterdv: a simple density-based clustering method that is robust, general and automatic.

MOTIVATION: How to partition a dataset into a set of distinct clusters is a ubiquitous and challenging problem. The fact that data vary widely in features such as cluster shape, cluster number, density distribution, background noise, outliers and degree of overlap, makes it difficult to find a single algorithm that can be broadly applied. One recent method, clusterdp, based on search of density peaks, can be applied successfully to cluster many kinds of data, but it is not fully automatic, and fails on some simple data distributions. RESULTS: We propose an alternative approach, clusterdv, which estimates density dips between points, and allows robust determination of cluster number and distribution across a wide range of data, without any manual parameter adjustment. We show that this method is able to solve a range of synthetic and experimental datasets, where the underlying structure is known, and identifies consistent and meaningful clusters in new behavioral data. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The clusterdv is implemented in Matlab. Its source code, together with example datasets are available on: https://github.com/jcbmarques/clusterdv. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Ecotoxicological and biochemical mixture effects of an herbicide and a metal at the marine primary producer diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii and the primary consumer copepod Acartia tonsa.

Mixture effects of chemicals and their potential synergistic interactions are of great concern to the public and regulatory authorities worldwide. Intensive agricultural activities are leading to discharges of chemical mixtures to nearby estuarine and marine waters with possible adverse effects on the aquatic communities and for the trophic food web interlinking these communities. Further information about the impacts of these stressors on aquatic organisms is needed. This study addresses ecotoxicological and biochemical effects of single and mixtures of the metal copper and the herbicide Primextra® Gold TZ on the marine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii and on the estuarine calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa by determining growth rate and survival, respectively, and changes on fatty acid(FA) profiles in both species. Mixture effects on diatom species revealed that copper and Primextra® acted most likely additively with respect to the concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) models with model deviation ratios (MDR), 0.752 and 1.063, respectively. For the copepod species, copper and Primextra® were most likely non-interactive with respect to the CA model (MDR = 1.521) but acted most likely synergistically with respect to the IA model (MDR = 2.026). A significant decline in the absolute FA concentration was observed for copepod species after mixture exposure including a considerable decrease of essential FAs that cannot be synthesized de novo by these grazers. We concluded that the mixture effects are more hazardous for primary consumer than for primary producer species in terms of both abundance and biomass quality, suggesting a potential for harmful effects for higher trophic levels and thus a decrease in energy flow through the ecosystem.