Assessment of anthropogenic impact in three environments of Mendoza (Argentina) using satellite and cytogenetic tools in the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus).

MENDEZ SOFIA; QUERO AAM; N GORLA,

Congreso; SETAC Latin America 14th Biennial Meeting; 2021

Free-living birds can be used as bioindicators to study biomarkers that can indicate the health of environments. In addition, these can be characterized by visual and digital analysis of satellite images. The objectives of the present study were to analyze the types and quantity of cytogenetic biomarkers in Passer domesticus from three environments, wild, urban and rural of the same phytogeographic region, characterized by the analysis of Landsat 8 images; and to analyze them in the context of land use and anthropogenic actions. A total of 5000 erythrocytes per bird from 30 P. domesticus were analyzed for the following nuclear alterations (NA): micronuclei (MN), anucleated cells (An), binucleated cells, nuclear notched (Nt), peripheral nuclei, nuclear buds (Bn), nuclear tails and nuclear bridges. The wild site was dominated by native bush (100%), the urban site by urban soil (87%), and the rural site had 5% agricultural crops within the flight radius of P. domesticus. The only NA that exceeded a frequency of 2 NA/ 1000 erythrocytes were the peripheral nuclei in the birds of the rural and urban sites, of greater anthropic activity with respect to the wild site. It is pertinent to comment that eight days before sampling, the rural site had been sprayed with chlorpyrifos 48%. On the other hand, the urban site presents reports of atmospheric contamination, mainly from vehicles. Sparrows inhabiting the rural site presented MN, peripheral nucleus and enucleated erythrocytes in higher proportion than in sparrows from the other sites (p≤0.05). A precedent is set for the use of environmental remote sensing in a complementary manner with cytogenetic biomarker studies in birds to obtain information on characteristics and possible impacts on environments.