Altered behavior of neonatal northern watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) exposed to maternally transferred mercury

Chin, Stephanie Y.; Willson, John D.; Cristol, Daniel A.; Drewett, David V.V.; Hopkins, William A.

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2013.01.030

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…It can bio-accumulate over an animal's lifetime and be transferred from mother to offspring (Bergeron et al, 2010). A variety of studies have shown negative effects of mercury exposure on reproduction (Barr and Service, 1986;Bergeron et al, 2011;Hammerschmidt et al, 2002;Brasso and Cristol, 2008) and behaviour (Chin et al, 2013;Smith et al, 2010) in vertebrates. Investigating whether mercury exposure affects responses to the Earth's magnetic field is of particular importance not only because of the wide spread effects of mercury toxicity on the vertebrate nervous system (Wolfe et al, 1998), but also because the effects of mercury may be specific to the magnetoreception mechanism(s) that mediate these responses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High levels of maternally transferred mercury disrupt magnetic responses of snapping turtle hatchlings (Chelydra serpentina)

Landler

Painter

Coe

et al. 2017

Environmental Pollution

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a b s t r a c tThe Earth's magnetic field is involved in spatial behaviours ranging from long-distance migration to nongoal directed behaviours, such as spontaneous magnetic alignment (SMA). Mercury is a harmful pollutant most often generated from anthropogenic sources that can bio-accumulate in animal tissue over a lifetime. We compared SMA of hatchling snapping turtles from mothers captured at reference (i.e., low mercury) and mercury contaminated sites. Reference turtles showed radio frequency-dependent SMA along the north-south axis, consistent with previous studies of SMA, while turtles with high levels of maternally inherited mercury failed to show consistent magnetic alignment. In contrast, there was no difference between reference and mercury exposed turtles on standard performance measures. The magnetic field plays an important role in animal orientation behaviour and may also help to integrate spatial information from a variety of sensory modalities. As a consequence, mercury may compromise the performance of turtles in a wide variety of spatial tasks. Future research is needed to determine the threshold for mercury effects on snapping turtles, whether mercury exposure compromises spatial behaviour of adult turtles, and whether mercury has a direct effect on the magnetoreception mechanism(s) that mediate SMA or a more general effect on the nervous system.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High levels of maternally transferred mercury disrupt magnetic responses of snapping turtle hatchlings (Chelydra serpentina)

Landler

Painter

Coe

et al. 2017

Environmental Pollution

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“…This is contrary to previous studies that have shown that Hg affects vertebrate immune function (Spalding et al, 2000;Finkelstein et al, 2007;Hawley et al, 2009). However, two recent studies found few adverse sublethal effects of maternally transferred Hg in neonatal N. sipedon (Chin et al, 2013a;Chin et al, 2013b), suggesting that our study species may be more tolerant of Hg than many other species. Future studies that examine species known to experience deleterious effects in response to Hg exposure [e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…epidermal margins joined), the individual was considered 'healed'. During healing, we housed neonates individually within the environmental chamber (25°C) in 5l plastic shoeboxes and females in 75l aquaria, both with a paper towel substrate and a water bowl small enough to prevent submergence [see Chin et al (Chin et al, 2013a) for husbandry details]. Following completion of wound healing, neonates and adult females were released at the female's capture location.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To assess maternal transfer of Hg, we euthanized, lyophilized and homogenized three randomly selected neonates per litter to be analyzed for Hg. Samples were analyzed for total mercury at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA [see Drewett et al (Drewett et al, 2013) and Chin et al (Chin et al, 2013a) for details about snake collection, housing and sample analysis].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Like mother, like offspring: maternal and offspring wound healing correlate in snakes

Hopkins

Chin

Willson

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYImmune function early in life can be influenced by parental effects and the environment, but it remains unclear how these two factors may interact to influence immunocompetence. We evaluated maternal and environmental contributions to offspring healing ability in a viviparous reptile, the northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon). We measured wound healing rates, a highly integrative and biologically relevant measure of innate immunity, of females and their offspring collected from sites contaminated with a toxic heavy metal and compared them with those of individuals from reference sites. We found that female watersnakes that healed the fastest produced offspring that also exhibited faster healing rates. However, we detected no influence of environmental pollution on maternal or offspring healing rates. To our knowledge, our study is the first to correlate maternal and offspring wound healing ability in a wild vertebrate.

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“…Certain elements are of particular concern because they can influence reproduction and/or survival at high concentrations (e.g., Sorensen, 1986;Lemly, 2002;Hopkins et al, 2013a). In addition, females may maternally transfer elements to their young during reproduction and posthatching provisioning, potentially resulting in compromised physiology of offspring (Nagle et al, 2001), increased malformation prevalence (Ohlendorf et al, 1986;Rowe et al, 1996) and altered offspring behavior (Bergeron et al, 2011;Chin et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Reproduction and hatchling performance in freshwater turtles associated with a remediated coal fly-ash spill

Steen

Dyke

Jackson

et al. 2015

Environmental Research

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Altered behavior of neonatal northern watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) exposed to maternally transferred mercury

Cited by 31 publications

References 34 publications

High levels of maternally transferred mercury disrupt magnetic responses of snapping turtle hatchlings (Chelydra serpentina)

High levels of maternally transferred mercury disrupt magnetic responses of snapping turtle hatchlings (Chelydra serpentina)

Like mother, like offspring: maternal and offspring wound healing correlate in snakes

Reproduction and hatchling performance in freshwater turtles associated with a remediated coal fly-ash spill

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