Friday, April 25, 2014
Effects of pesticides on Ambystoma maculatum
After reviewing some primary literature, I came across an interesting article about the effects of two pesticides, one of which was carbaryl, an insecticide used to combat misquito populations. I was astounded because I just finished writing a paper for my plant taxonomy class about threats to the Venus fly-trap (Dionaea muscipula), one of which being this same pesticide. The article experiments with the effects of carbaryl on Ambystoma maculatum by exposing salamanders to carbaryl for a 24 hour period. The effects show that the pesticide increases fatigue in the salamanders, which could of course affect their ability to escape prey, forage, and pretty much survive in general. In the research for my paper I found out that carbaryl also affects the survivorship of D. muscipula and also reduces the number of leaves per plant. We learned in class about agrochemical repercussions with the use of atrazine, in the West specifically. Carbaryl seems to be detrimental to our some of our local species. We need to consider the consequences of our actions on the environment. Title: The effects of 24-h exposure to carbaryl or atrazine on the locomotor performance and overwinter growth and survival of juvenile spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) Journal: ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Vol. 33 No. 3. 2014 p. 548 - 552. Author: Mitchkash, Matthew G Links: ebsco - http://ejournals.ebsco.com.nuncio.cofc.edu/Direct.asp?AccessToken=7D3L9T3B3F0VX9TDRTX9IRXN3MTIBTDOTO&Show=Object (you might need to be logged in to mycharleston)
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3 comments:
Very interesting link between a vulnerable plant and threats to amphibians.
It's scary to think about how the pesticides and chemicals we use are affecting the plants and animals in our environment. Until our class lecture, I had never really thought about pesticides as an example of habitat modification, but it is clearly having significant impacts on amphibians and where they live. It's such a shame how we are destroying the life that lives around us.
It's crazy that while we are discovering the horrible effects that pesticides are creating for organisms, we still continue to use them. Everything is interconnected in some way, and it makes sense that if pesticides can harm plants, they can harm amphibians as well as other animals. You would think that with today's technology, we could find a happy medium in the pesticide world that would not have a negative impact on the environment.
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