Cell phone-generated radio frequency electromagnetic field effects on the locomotor behaviors of the fishes Poecilia reticulata and Danio rerio

Abstract

Purpose: The locomotor behavior of small fish was characterized under a cell phone-generated radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF).

Materials and methods: The trajectory of movement of 10 pairs of guppy (Poecilia reticulate) and 15 pairs of Zebrafish (Danio rerio) in a fish tank was recorded and tracked under the presence of a cell phone-generated RF EMF. The measures were based on spatial and temporal distributions. A time-series trajectory was utilized to emphasize the dynamic nature of locomotor behavior. Fish movement was recorded in real-time. Their spatial, velocity, turning angle and sinuosity distribution were analyzed in terms of F(v,x), P[n(x,t)], P(v), F (θ) and F(s), respectively. In addition, potential temperature elevation caused by a cellular phone was also examined.

Results: We demonstrated that a cellular phone-induced temperature elevation was not relevant, and that our measurements reflected RF EMF-induced effects on the locomotor behavior of Poecilia reticulata and Danio rerio. Fish locomotion was observed under normal conditions, in the visual presence of a cell phone, after feeding, and under starvation. Fish locomotor behavior was random both in normal conditions and in the presence of an off-signaled cell phone. However, there were significant changes in the locomotion of the fish after feeding under the RF EMF.

Conclusions: The locomotion of the fed fish was affected in terms of changes in population and velocity distributions under the presence of the RF EMF emitted by the cell phone. There was, however, no significant difference in angular distribution.

Keywords::

• Fish
• speed of movement
• RF EMF
• spatiotemporal distribution
• sinuosity of movement

Acknowledgements

DL and JL would like to thank Prof. Dongxu Jin for his help in thermal imaging (Dalian University of Technology, Laoning, China).

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary 1–3 including two videos.