UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE NUEVO LEÓN

COMPRENSIÓN DE TEXTOS CIENTÍFICOS EN INGLÉS

CHRONIC EXPOSURE TO
GLYPHOSATE IN
FLORIDA MANATEE
REGINA ANGELICA PALACIOS GUAJARDO
JESUS EMILIANO GARZA PALACIOS
GRUPO 021
 IN F O RMATION
JOURNAL: DATE PUBLISHED ISSN:
ScienceDirect Accepted 26 106493
February 2021
Available online 16
March 2021

AUTHORS: DEPARTMENTS: DEPARTMENTS:

Department of Physiological U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland
KEYWORDS
Maite De María. Sciences and Center for and Aquatic Research Center,
Cecilia Silva-Sanchez. Environmental and Human Gainesville, FL 32653, United Marine mammals
Kevin J. Kroll. Toxicology, University of Florida, States. Polar Organic
Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Michael T. Walsh. Aquatic Animal Health Program,
Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta,
Georgia, 225 Baker Street
Chemical Integrative
Mohammed-Zaman College of Veterinary Medicine, Samplers
Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30313,
Nouri. University of Florida, PO Box USA. AMPA
Margaret E. Hunter. 100136, Gainesville, FL 32610, Department of Biochemistry
Monica Ross. USA. and Molecular Biology, Everglades
Tonya M. Clauss. Clearwater Marine Aquarium,
249 Windward Passage,
University of Florida, Gainesville, Ecotoxicology
Nancy D. Denslow. Clearwater, FL 33767, USA
FL 32610, USA HPLC-MS/MS
 TITLE ANALYSIS

MAIN TOPIC SUBJECT (SPECIES)

Chronic exposure to glyphosate The Florida manatee
 INTRODUCTION
Florida manatees depend on freshwater environments as a
source of drinking water and as warm-water refuges.
These freshwater environments are in direct contact with
human activities where glyphosate-based herbicides are
being used. Glyphosate is the most used herbicide worldwide
(over 6.1 billion kg has been applied in the last decade) and it
is intensively used in Florida as a sugarcane ripener and to
control invasive aquatic plants. The objective of the present
study was to determine the concentration of glyphosate and
its breakdown product, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA),
in Florida manatee plasma and assess their exposure to
manatees seeking a warm-water refuge in Crystal River
(west central Florida), and in South Florida. When using
these warm-water refuges, Florida manatees can be exposed
to anthropogenic chemicals, agricultural runoff, including
pesticides and herbicides, and municipal contaminants may
adversely affect the health of Florida manatees in addition
to other known environmental exposure threats such as red
tide and cold stress syndrome.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
MATERIALS
Florida manatee were sampled at three sites between 2009 and
2019: Brevard County, Crystal River, Citrus County, Kings Bay at
the Florida and Georgia border, Plasma samples from Florida
manatees were collected during health assessments or from
rescued animals by U.S Geological Survey (USGS) Sirenia Project
and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,
Samples from Georgia were collected by the Clearwater Marine
Aquarium.
Water sampling occurred at Crystal River (Citrus County,
Florida), a Florida manatee warm-water refuge and in South
Florida in the main water bodies receiving Lake Okeechobee’s
discharge. (Currently has a surface area of 1890 km2 and an
average depth of 2.7 m and has received increasingly excessive
input of nutrients from agricultural activities in the watershed,
which significantly reduces the water quality)
METHODS
Samples collected from 2016 to 2019 were analyzed during
health assessments and rescued animals. Plasma samples
from 2009 to 2015 were selected based on sample availability.
A veterinarian collected whole blood from minimally restrained
Florida manatees from the medial interosseous space between
the ulna and radius from the pectoral flippers. Blood samples
were drawn using Sodium or Lithium Heparin 7-mL vacutainers
(Takeuchi et al., 2016). Samples were spun on site and the
plasma was aliquoted, stored in liquid nitrogen or dry- ice,
◦
and transferred to -80 C once in the lab.
For every processing batch of samples (water), we added 10%
laboratory blank samples using only Milli-Q water, and which
were treated the same way as the MIP-POCIS from the field,
water grab samples, and plasma.
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Glyphosate was detected in 55.8% of Florida manatee plasma
samples with the average concentration of 0.17 ± 0.47 μg L 1.
The highest concentration of glyphosate was found in one male
from Crystal River with 3.59 μg L 1. The concentration of
glyphosate in plasma increased linearly from 2009 to 2019 in
Florida manatees from Brevard County and Crystal River (Fig. 1).
However, Florida manatees sampled in Georgia had a significant
decrease in glyphosate concentration from 2017 to 2019 (Fig. 1,
Table 1). The explained deviance of the model was 27%. There
was no significant difference between sexes or the relationship
with the length of the animal and the concentration of
glyphosate (Supplementary Fig. 1).
AMPA was detected in only 15.6% of the plasma samples. The
average concentration was 0.081 ± 0.08 μg L 1, and the maximum
concentration was 0.38 μg L 1 in a female sampled in Crystal
River. The probability of detecting AMPA was not significantly
explained by any of the measured variables, therefore, it
remained constant through time, despite sex, length, and
sampling site.
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Glyphosate was detected in grab samples in all of the
study locations and not in blanks and its
concentration varied depending on the sampling site
and sampling period. AMPA was detected in 62% of
the gab samples. Glyphosate and AMPA average and
maximum concentrations per sampling site are shown
in Table 2. The MIP-POCIS accumulated glyphosate
and AMPA in all three sampling periods in all the
sampling sites and the accumulation of glyphosate in
the MIP-sorbent was higher than the accumulation of
AMPA for all sampling sites. The accumulation of
glyphosate and AMPA in the MIP-sorbent were higher
in South Florida than in Crystal River. The maximum
accumulation of glyphosate by the MIP-sorbent
occurred simultaneously in South Florida and Crystal
River, in the time period between December and
January. In South Florida this is “during” the
sugarcane application, with 406.2 ng g 1 day 1 at the
outflow of the STA1W.
Accumulation of glyphosate (orange) and AMPA (blue)
(ng g−1 day−1) per gram of molecular imprinted-
sorbent (MIP-sorbent) installed in Polar Organic
Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCI) per day at 8
sampling sites in Florida: Crystal River (Hunter Springs
and Saragassa Canal) and at South Florida,
Caloosahatchee River (Caloosahatchee up and
Caloosahatchee down), the outflow of Stormwater
Treatment Areas (STA1W and STA2), St. Lucie Canal
(St Lucie up, and St. Lucie down), before, during and
after sugarcane harvest.
VOCABULARY
LEARNED
Glyphosate: Glifosato
Refuge: Refugio
Ripener: Madurador
Runoff: Escorrentía
Tidee: Marea
Adversely: Negativamente
Bibliography:
De María, M., Silva-Sanchez, C., Kroll, K. J., Walsh, M.,
Nouri, M., Hunter, M. E., Ross, M., Clauss, T. M., & Denslow,
N. D. (2021). Chronic exposure to glyphosate in Florida
manatee. Environment International, 152, 106493.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106493