Fig 1 - uploaded by Randall Arguedas
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Map of Costa Rica showing collection sites near agricultural plantations. Each red dot represents an individual of Bothrops asper (n ¼ 14). RC (Río Cuarto, Grecia, Alajuela), LV (La Virgen, Sarapiquí, Heredia), SQ (Siquirres, Lim on), PA (Parrita, Puntarenas), QU (Quepos, Puntarenas), BB (Bahía Ballena (Osa, Puntarenas), CA (Candelarita, Puriscal, San Jos e).
Source publication
The terciopelo (Bothrops asper) inhabits human-modified environments such as agricultural areas, becoming more prone to be exposed to organophosphate insecticides. These chemicals can inhibit plasmatic butyr-ylcholinesterases (BChE) activity in B. asper. Caribbean and Pacific populations of B. asper belong to two divergent lineages that exhibit rob...
Contexts in source publication
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... Caribbean versant of Costa Rica. The most common localities from the Caribbean slope were: Siquirres (Lim on), Río Cuarto (Grecia, Alajuela) and La Virgen (Sarapiquí, Heredia); whereas the most common localities from the Pacific slope were: Parrita (Puntarenas), Candelarita (Puriscal), Quepos (Puntarenas), and Bahía Ballena (Osa, Puntarenas) ( Fig. 1). All snakes were kept in acrylic terraria within temperature-controlled rooms (26-28 C) and controlled humidity (80-90%). Feeding was done every 15 days with laboratory mice (Mus musculus, CD-1 strain), and water was provided ad libitum. The sex ratio was 1.1 : 0.8 females (n ¼ 47) to males (n ¼ ...
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... hemoglobin variation is not always related to any anemic conditions (lowest values) (Saggese, 2009), or considered higher due to altitude variations in reptiles (Gonz alez-Morales et al., 2017); since in both versants, Pacific and Caribbean, the biogeographical distribution of B. asper is similar. The health status, leucocytes, and thrombocytes may vary due to stress when animals were captured, age, environmental factors, season, diet, and even between captive and wild populations (G omez et al., 2016). However, considering that the animals studied came from both versants, different diets and submitted to the same handling stress when collecting the blood sample, the variations in hemoglobin, thrombocytes, and white cells count might be related to intrinsic metabolic or genic differences ( Sasa et al., 2009;Saldarriaga-C ordoba et al., 2017). ...
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... asper exhibits robust genetic partitioning that accounts for at least ten distinct mitochondrial phylogroups included in two separate lineages (Saldarriaga-C ordoba et al., 2017). The groups occupy different geographic regions and show private haplotypes, indicating a clear division among them (Saldarriaga-C ordoba et al., 2017). Therefore, a genetic component might play a role to account for the BChE differences detected between Caribbean and Pacific populations of Costa Rica, although this requires further research. ...
Citations
... For reptiles, only the pit viper (Terciopelo) Bothrops asper, that is commonly found in banana plantations, was studied. The snakes showed elevated biomarker levels related to detoxification, which may be associated with pesticide contamination (Arguedas et al., 2019). ...
Biodiversity is declining on a global scale. Especially tropical ecosystems, containing most of the planetary biodiversity, are at risk. Agricultural monocrop systems contribute to this decline as they replace original habitats and depend on extensive use of synthetic pesticides that impact ecosystems. In this review we use large-scale banana production for export purposes in Costa Rica as an example for pesticide impacts, as it is in production for over a century and uses pesticides extensively for more than fifty years. We summarise the research on pesticide exposure, effects and risks for aquatic and terrestrial environment, as well as for human health. We show that exposure to pesticides is high and relatively well-studied for aquatic systems and humans, but hardly any data are available for the terrestrial compartment including adjacent non target ecosystems such as rainforest fragments. Ecological effects are demonstrated on an organismic level for various aquatic species and processes but are not available at the population and community level. For human health studies exposure evaluation is crucial and recognised effects include various types of cancer and neurobiological dysfunctions particularly in children. With the many synthetic pesticides involved in banana production, the focus on insecticides, revealing highest aquatic risks, and partly herbicides should be extended to fungicides, which are applied aerially over larger areas. The risk assessment and regulation of pesticides so far relies on temperate models and test species and is therefore likely underestimating the risk of pesticide use in tropical ecosystems, with crops such as banana. We highlight further research approaches to improve risk assessment and, in parallel, urge to follow other strategies to reduce pesticides use and especially hazardous substances.
