Figure 1 - uploaded by Karolina Stark
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The life cycle of an anuran, from fertilized egg, through larval stages and metamorphosis, to sexually mature adult. From Storer et al., 1979.
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... including frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians, are an interesting group to study exposure to and effects from ionizing radiation due to their physiology and ecology. The frog and toad species that were studied in this thesis have a complex life cycle (Figure 1) and an external embryonic development, i.e. they lay their eggs directly in the water without protection of a shell or amnion. This could make them sensitive to ionizing radiation. ...
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... Laboratory data from Stark and colleagues using tadpoles of American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeiana), Eastern spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrooki), and Southern toad (Bufo terrestris) showed that the 0.13 mGy/d dose rate (gamma radiation) had equally severe effects on larval survival to metamorphosis as did the dose rate 222 mGy/d (Stark 2006). Interestingly, dose rates ranging from 0.13 mGy/d to 222 mGy/d had no effect on hatching success of frog embryos (Stark 2006). ...
... Laboratory data from Stark and colleagues using tadpoles of American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeiana), Eastern spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrooki), and Southern toad (Bufo terrestris) showed that the 0.13 mGy/d dose rate (gamma radiation) had equally severe effects on larval survival to metamorphosis as did the dose rate 222 mGy/d (Stark 2006). Interestingly, dose rates ranging from 0.13 mGy/d to 222 mGy/d had no effect on hatching success of frog embryos (Stark 2006). ...
Amphibians are facing an unprecedented level of population declines worldwide. The causes run the gamut from habitat loss and succumbing to opportunistic pathogen infections to vulnerability to toxic pollutants and ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation exposure. Anthropogenic activities including Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters and radioactive waste leakage into the environment raise the background radiation levels. Their immediate and chronic effects on amphibian populations are still being studied. However, the literature on environmental radiation effects on amphibian health still requires a lot more work. Laboratory and field works need to be conducted hand in hand in order to make informative and conclusive analyses to distinguish bad from good and harm from risk or to argue for or against the linear no-threshold model in radioprotection programs. Amphibian cell lines can help seek answers to important questions pertaining environmental radiobiology and amphibian health wherever they can suitably and effectively. The purpose of this work is to show that amphibian cell lines can 'rescue' important knowledge gaps in the literature, especially in the low-dose radiation mechanisms. Presently, there are 142 amphibian cell lines developed from six urodelans and 17 anurans. Amphibian cell lines can help expand and enrich the limited literature on environmental radiation effects on amphibians. They can be used to study mechanisms of radiation actions and discover reliable biomarkers for low-dose exposure. They can be used in environmental radiation monitoring and radioprotection programs. They can be used to determine the effects of co-exposure of IR and other stressors in the environment on amphibian health. They represent an ethical choice for amphibian conservation efforts in the current global amphibian declines. Lessons learned from cellular data can be useful guides to gain a better picture of effects occurring at the amphibian population and ecosystem levels.
... The degree and intensity of absorption depends on the size of the reservoir-the smaller the wetland area is, the higher the RNs concentration in it is. Consequently, their effect on the inhabitants of the reservoir is considerable [56,58]. Another aspect of the radiation-protection system is the selection of reference organisms for assessing environmental risk. ...
... mGy/day (13-69 mGy/year), estimated within the framework of the FASSET project. In field measurements, the external dose rate for amphibians (0.018-0.128 mGy/h) is also lower than the dose limits proposed by CNSC and ERICA [58]. In the authors' study, the power of the external gamma radi- ation of a reservoir located on a radioactive contaminated area did not exceed the limits specified by the CNSC and ERICA, 0.5 μGy/h (0.012 mGy/day). ...
Amphibians are one of the most poorly studied groups of vertebrates in ecotoxicology and radioecology. The level of cytogenetic damage in the blood cells of tadpoles Rana arvalis Nilsson living on the territory of the Ukhta district of the village of Vodnyi in the Komi Republic, which is contaminated with technogenic radionuclides and heavy metals, is evaluated by “Comet assay”. It is shown that, in animals that develop in water bodies with high concentrations of radionuclides and heavy metals, the frequency of alkalilabile sites and single-strand break of DNA is higher than in the control area. No significant differences have been found when estimating the level of double-strand break of DNA. AFLP analysis indicates a weak genetic differentiation of the studied populations of amphibians.
... The radionuclide concentration varied from 68 to 750 Bq/kg wet weight in mature frogs and the current-year juvenils inhabiting the lake. There are works (Stark et al., 2004;Stark, 2006) devoted to research into the accumulation and and the assessment of the radiation doses to the Rana arvalis frogs and the current-year juvenils inhabiting the marsh ecosystems in the central eastern part of Sweden 17 years after the Chernobyl accident. According to the survey results, the average 137 Cs concentration in frogs comprised 1.7 ± 1.1 Bq/kg wet weight. ...
The accumulation levels of anthropogenic ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs radionuclides in the marsh frog have been studied in the areas of the Beloyarskii water-storage reservoir (an industrial storm-water discharge channel of the nuclear power station) and the Verkhnii Tagil water-storage reservoir (the Tagil River down-stream of the dam). No significant distinction in the radionuclide accumulation (⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs) depending on the amphibian sex and age is detected. Comparable levels of the accumulation of radionuclides in the marsh frog, when compared to the other representatives of the water ecosystem, are estimated. An assumption of the presence of some unidentified source of radioactive contamination of marsh frogs has been made; cesium-137 may be transferred from it to the Tagil River by the frogs.
