Acute and chronic effects of coal tar and asphalt sealants on salamanders

Creator

Thomas Bommarito
Richard Halbrook
Donald W. Sparling

Files

Publication Date

January 2009

Abstract

The Barton Springs salamander (Eurycea sosorum) is a federally endangered species inhabiting pools of the Edwards aquifer in the City of Austin, Texas. The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in these pools elicited concern for the conservation of the species because 4 PAHs have acute and chronic effects on aquatic organisms, including amphibians. These PAHs appear to be coming from sealants applied to pavements within the watershed of these ponds. To determine if Barton Springs salamanders could be a risk to these PAHs three laboratory experiments were funded by the Barton Springs Conservation Foundation and conducted by at Southern Illinois University. These experiments used adult eastern newts (Notophthalmus 9 viridescens), larval spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and adults of the closely related San Marcos salamander ( Eurycea nana) as surrogates. The respective primary objectives of the experiments were to assess: 1) a dose/response relationship between concentrations of PAHs and acute or chronic effects using asphalt and coal tar sealants; 2) if exposure to realistic levels of ultraviolet radiation affect the toxicity of PAHs from coal tar sealant; and 3) the comparative toxicity of E. nana to the other surrogates species. Open Access - Permission by Publisher See Extended description for more information.

Keywords

Biology

Type

Text

Language

English

Publisher

Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory at Southern Illinois University

Identifier

K26-00203

Recommended Citation

Bommarito, Thomas; Halbrook, Richard; and Sparling, Donald W., "Acute and chronic effects of coal tar and asphalt sealants on salamanders" (2009). KIP Data Sets and Technical Reports. 3.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_data/3