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CHARACTERIZATION OF RELATIVE SENSITIVITY OF AMPHIBIANS TO ULTRA VIOLET RADIATION
Citation:
DeFoe, D L., K M. Jensen, S A. Diamond, AND G T. Ankley. CHARACTERIZATION OF RELATIVE SENSITIVITY OF AMPHIBIANS TO ULTRA VIOLET RADIATION. Presented at Joint Regional SETAC/SOT Annual Meeting, USEPA, Duluth, MN, April 9-10, 2002.
Description:
Different studies have demonstrated that solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation can adversely affect survival and development of embryonic and larval amphibians. However, because of among-laboratory variations in exposure profiles (artificial vs. natural sunlight; natural sunlight at different latitudes/elevations under variable weather conditions), it has been difficult to perform quantitative assessments of exposure-response relationships across different species or life stages. The purpose of this work was to develop a test system suitable for generating high quality data for deriving quantitatively and qualitatively mimic full-spectrum sunlight, and also meet the biological commercially-available solar simulator, with a step-wise diurnal intensity simulation program that we refined for temperature-controlled aqueous exposures with up to 27 discrete test chambers. Experiments with several species of native North American anurans (green frog, Northern and Southern leopard frogs, mink frogs) have demonstrated significant across-species variations in sensitivity to UV radiation. In addition, through "pulsed" exposures of early life stages to UV radiation under these controlled conditions, it has been possible to define discrete windows of sensitivity in terms of survival and growth effects.
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