Amphibians are important sentinel environmental species since they integrate stressors from both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.  Pesticides are well established as a significant stressor for amphibians. In order to study spray-drift contributions to amphibian habitats, pesticide concentrations in rainwater, stem-flow (water flowing down the trunk of a tree during a rain event) and amphibian tissue during the summer of 2013 in agriculturally impacted wetland areas near Tifton, Georgia, USA were measured. Preliminary data indicates that herbicides (metolachlor) and fungicides (chlorothalonil) are present in all these components, with rainwater concentrations highest, followed by stemflow and amphibian tissue concentrations.  However, only trace levels of these pesticides are found in amphibians, likely due to hepatic metabolism. These data help assess the importance of indirect spray-drift exposures to amphibian habitats. Together these data combined with in vitro-derived metabolic parameters collected from laboratory exposed amphibians to assess the ecological risk from spray-drift exposures more effectively.

Pesticide detection in rainwater, stemflow, and amphibians from agricultural spray-drift in southern Georgia, USA

248th National Meeting (2014)

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