Caracterização das propriedades químicas e biológicas do muco cloacal das tartarugas marinhas - Ipojuca/PE

Abstract

Sea turtles are migratory animals that travel long distances and have a complex life cycle. They are bioindicators and biocontrol animals, contributing to the maintenance of the marine ecosystem. These animals exert great effort in choosing the spawning site to ensure reproductive success. Of the seven species that exist in the world, five occur in Brazil, and all are classified at some level of threat of extinction. There are many threats that turtles face in order to reach adulthood, one of which is related to marine pollution due to chemical compounds that have become an increasingly common reality for these animals. At the time of spawning the turtle releases a light-colored mucus that coats all eggs, thus avoiding the impact between one egg and another and maintaining cloaca lubrication, however the characterization of chemical properties and toxicity have not been documented. The objective of this work was to characterize the chemical properties, the toxicity of the substance and to identify the heavy metals present in the cloacal mucus of the sea turtles. From August 2017 to October 2018, manual collection of cloacal mucus was performed, which took place immediately after spawning, with the aid of a 15 ml falcon tube positioned below the cloaca. Ten females were sampled, nine from Eretmochelys imbricata and one from Chelonia mydas, in the coast of Ipojuca / PE. These had a physical chemical aspect with turbidity in some samples, their pH ranged from 8.58 to 9.28 with a tendency to be alkaline, through the mortality numbers of Artemias salina nauplii the mucus showed a variation in its toxicity of very Toxic to slightly toxic, the amount of protein varied in the samples in concentrations from 0.27 mg to 5.17 mg, for heavy metals the highest concentrations were for Aluminum (35.5 mg / L), followed by Iron (28 , 7 mg / L) and Copper with (26.9 mg / L) besides these were also analyzed Manganese (16.1 mg / L), Lead (15.7 mg / L), Nickel (14 mg / L), Cadmium (13.5 mg / L) and Chromium (12.1 mg / L). The analysis showed that mucus is a good biological material for toxicity analysis and metal identification, however there is much to characterize in its chemical composition, requiring the continuity of this work to monitor the animals, as well as to evaluate space-seasonal issues of these metals. Mucus may be a good predictor of animal and environmental health.