RESUMEN
In this report, we investigated the accumulation of heavy metals in the lizard Microlophus atacamensis, in three coastal areas of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. We captured reptiles in a non-intervened area (Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar, PAZ), an area of mining impact (Caleta Palitos, PAL) and an active industrial zone (Puerto de Caldera, CAL). Our methods included a non-lethal sampling of reptiles' tails obtained by autotomy and a few sacrificed animals to perform a stomach contents analysis. The concentrations of lead, copper, nickel, zinc and cadmium were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in both soil and prey and compared to those recorded in the lizards' tails. Data obtained from lizard tails captured in PAL showed significantly high concentrations of Pb, Cu, Ni, and Zn compared to the other two sites PAZ and CAL. We did not find statistically significant differences among PAZ, PAL and CAL soils, probably due to the similar geological composition of the sites. However, the regional background values for Pb indicate contamination or at least metal enrichment in soils of the three sites, for Cu the global background values indicate contamination for the three sites, and for Cd both the regional and global backgroud values show high values. The analysis of the stomach content showed differences in the food sources of the lizards among the sites studied. The concentration of heavy metal in lizard tissues versus prey delivered values of the Trophic Transfer Factor higher than one (1), suggesting that food may be a primary source of metals in the tissues of M. atacamensis. Calculations of the Bioaccumulation Factor (BAF) and the Ecological Risk (IR) resulted in values higher than one (1) indicating the relevance of this process in the sites studied. In this article, we report relationships between environmental contaminants, mainly putative preys, and concentrations found in lizard tails, which is more substantial in areas with historical heavy metal contamination such as PAL where the non-lethal technique developed in this research suggests a process of metal bioaccumulation in M. atacamensis.
Asunto(s)
Lagartos , Metales Pesados , Contaminantes del Suelo , Animales , Chile , China , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Metales Pesados/análisis , Medición de Riesgo , Suelo , Contaminantes del Suelo/análisisRESUMEN
In this data article, we investigated the accumulation of heavy metals in the lizard Microlophus atacamensis, in three coastal areas of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. We captured lizards in a non-intervened area (Parque Nacional Pan de Azucar, PAZ), an area of mining impact (Caleta Palitos, PAL) and an active industrial zone (Puerto de Caldera, CAL). Our methods included a non-lethal sampling of lizard's tails obtained by autotomy. The concentrations of lead, copper, nickel, zinc and cadmium were measured in both soil and prey and compared to those recorded in the lizards' tails. We estimated metal concentrations in the soil, in putative prey and M. atacamensis tails, using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. In order to characterize the trophic ecology of M. atacamensis and to relate it to possible differences in metal loads between sites, we included a few slaughtered animals to perform a stomach contents analysis (SCA). The software R Core Team (2019) was used to carry out all statistical tests to evaluate and analyze the data, applying a priori and a posteriori statistical tests to test the variance and mean hypotheses. Analysis of the data of the content of heavy metals in the tails, prey and soil inhabited by M. atacamensis in PAZ, PAL and CAL showed that the concentration of metals found in the tails and the range of environmental exposure to heavy metals of these animals were related. This article shows for the first time a quantification of the metal concentration on lizard tissues with a non-lethal technique in anthropically disturbed sites in the South Pacific.