Abstract
Small mammals are potential elements to evaluate mining impacts because they occupy key positions in food webs and can be sampled using relatively inexpensive, easy and quick methods. They have been used as environmental indicators for various purposes, such as ecological succession gradients and pollution, among others. However, little is mentioned about bioaccumulation in South America. Our objective is to present data from a heavy metal accumulation test using the Brazilian gracile opossum Gracilinanus microtarsus (J. A. Wagner, 1842) as an experimental model. We concluded that the contents of heavy metals found in the animals’ tissues showed differences when compared to other individuals of the same species from an area without the influence of heavy metals. As a result, we encourage the scientific community to carry out more studies in this little mentioned line in the literature in South America and incipient in Brazil.
Highlights
Brazil has suffered from an increasing impact of mining activities in recent years, such as the collapse of dams in Minas Gerais state, thereby affecting important watersheds of the Southeastern and Northeastern regions of Brazil, such as the Doce River and São Francisco River basins (Cionek et al, 2019; Thompson et al, 2020)
In order to verify if the marsupial collected in the mining area had higher concentrations of cadmium and lead than other marsupials of the same species which were not exposed to these heavy metals, quantitative analyzes of cadmium and lead were carried out from tissues of both the animal test and from other individuals from the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) Mammalian Collection (CMUFLA), referred to as control samples
The cadmium and lead contents present in the test animal are highly discrepant in relation to those found in the control samples
Summary
Brazil has suffered from an increasing impact of mining activities in recent years, such as the collapse of dams in Minas Gerais state, thereby affecting important watersheds of the Southeastern and Northeastern regions of Brazil, such as the Doce River and São Francisco River basins (Cionek et al, 2019; Thompson et al, 2020). Small mammals are potential elements to evaluate the mining impacts because they occupy key positions in food webs (Kaufman et al, 1998) and can be sampled using relatively inexpensive, easy and quick methods (Graipel et al, 2003; Astúa et al, 2006; Hice & Velazco, 2013) These animals have been used as environmental indicators (Machado et al, 2013) for a wide range of purposes, such as changes in agriculture (Fischer et al, 2011), ecological succession (Briani et al, 2004), and altitude gradients (Moreira, J. et al, 2009), and seed dispersal (Horn et al, 2008; Andreazzi et al, 2009). Small mammals act in a fundamental way in the trophic chain, contributing to the control and dispersion of plant species, serving as prey for larger predators, and controlling smaller species (invertebrates, other mammals, reptiles and birds) (Redford & Eisenberg, 1992)
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