The agricultural impact of pesticides on Physalaemus cuvieri tadpoles (Amphibia: Anura) ascertained by comet assay

By

Gonçalves, Macks W.
Gambale, Priscilla Guedes
Godoy, Fernanda R.
Alves, Alessandro Arruda
Rezende, Pedro H. De A.
Cruz, Aparecido Divino da
Maciel, Natan Medeiros
Nomura, Fausto
Bastos, Rogério
De Marco, Paulo
Silva, Daniela De M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017-8-10

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

34

Pages

1--8

Subjects

Amphibians , bioindicators , exposure , Genotoxicity , Pesticides

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zoologia.34.e19865

 

Abstract

Amphibians inhabiting agricultural areas are constantly exposed to large amounts of chemicals, which reach the aquatic environment during the rainy season through runoff, drainage, and leaching. We performed a comet assay on the erythrocytes of tadpoles found in the surroundings of agricultural fields (soybean and corn crops), where there is an intense release of several kinds of pesticides in different quantities. We aimed to detect differences in the genotoxic parameters between populations collected from soybeans and cornfields, and between them and tadpoles sampled from non-agricultural areas (control group). Tadpoles collected from ponds located at soybean fields had significantly more DNA damage, followed by tadpoles collected from cornfields. In contrast, animals sampled from non-agricultural areas had the lowest incidence of DNA damage. In addition, we found a negative correlation between the parameters of the comet assay and the area of the ponds surrounding soybean. This correlation indicates a possible dilution effect in the concentration of pesticides. Finally, Physalaemus cuvieri Fitzinger, 1826 seems to be a good bioindicator for detecting the genotoxic effects of field agricultural insecticides; therefore, we suggest that this species should be used in environmental biomonitoring studies, since it is common and abundant where it occurs.