Amphibian populations are in mass decline on a global scale. Various explanations have been
considered, including harmful effects from exposure to toxicants. Using Xenopus laevis adults
and tadpoles, potential sublethal effects of atrazine, a herbicide, were investigated in this
thesis. I also investigated the toxicity of an organic herbicide compared this with the toxicity
of a synthetic herbicide, using LC50 values.
Whether X. laevis adult frogs could communicate chemically was tested experimentally. The
results suggest that adult female X. laevis communicate chemically, but there was no evidence
that male individuals did so. For testing tadpoles I used a kin-preference assay. An
encouraging trend for kin preference was evident, for both an outbred and an inbred line.
Tadpoles changed their behaviour after exposure to l0μg/L of atrazine for 24 hr. Kin
preferences in the control tests were reversed after exposure. A hypothesis of altruistic kin
avoidance was suggested by these results. However, when individuals were isolated and then
exposed, these individuals had more pronounced preference for kin compared to controls.
X. laevis tadpoles exposed to Organic Interceptor (organic herbicide) had a LC50 that was
more than 7000 times lower than the 20% recommended dose, whereas Roundup Renews' (a
synthetic herbicide) LC50 was around 8 times lower than the 1% recommended dose.
This research adds to evidence that toxicants have a negative impact on amphibian
populations, and suggests that more research needs to be conducted to identify other sublethal
effects of toxicants and to clarify the implications these effects might have for the amphibian
populations in nature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/1593 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Yuill Proctor, Kirsty Ann |
| Publisher | University of Canterbury. Zoology |
| Source Sets | University of Canterbury |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic thesis or dissertation, Text |
| Rights | Copyright Kirsty Ann Yuill Proctor, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml |
| Relation | NZCU |
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