Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY
Volume 25, Issue 5, Pages 1208-1213Publisher
SETAC
DOI: 10.1897/05-028R.1
Keywords
carbaryl; evaporative water loss; reptiles; snakes; swimming performance
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Locomotor performance is an important fitness-related trait in reptiles because of its potential influence on prey capture and predator avoidance. Because cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides disrupt neuromuscular signaling, reduction in performance seems to be a logical translation of this biochemical disruption to the organism level, In the present study, we compared the swimming performance of four species of natricine snakes acutely exposed to a formulation of carbaryl to determine whether neonatal body size or skin permeability influences responsiveness. Exposure to high concentrations of carbaryl (2.5-5.0 mg/L) resulted in reduced swimming performance in all four species of snakes, and species responded similarly to the pesticide once body size was accounted for allometrically. Using traditional methods in physiological ecology to estimate skin permeability (a parameter that influences the dose of contaminant absorbed), we found that water flux across the integument also scaled allometrically with body surface area and, therefore, was similar among species after controlling for this relationship. We suggest that future studies examining the effects of repeated low-dose exposure to cholinesterase inhibitors on performance parameters will be useful in assessing the ecological significance of our findings.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available