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ABSTRACT
Ecosystems around the world are under threat from environmental pollution, which calls for efficient monitoring techniques to determine its presence and effects. Despite intensive ecotoxicological research, we still know relatively little about the effects and consequences of environmental contamination. Filling these knowledge gaps is particularly important regarding tadpoles, because they play significant roles as BioIndicators in freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the changes in energy levels in the head regions of tadpoles from three different sites; capitol, slaughter and NIFOR dump. Nine days old tadpoles were dissected into head and tail and homogenized separately from each of the sites. All tadpoles showed high total protein but Slaughter tadpoles showed the highest levels. This indicates high protein synthesizing activities due to the exposure of the tadpoles to wastes such as animal blood. Tadpoles from all the sites showed high LDH activity. This indicates the use of anaerobic respiration as a result of low oxygen availability in the water. All tadpoles from each site showed high glucose concentrations with no significant difference in their level of exposure to energy substrates from the environment. These results indicate that these sites are all polluted and this can have several lethal effects such as Neurological Problems, Lead Poisoning, Chronic respiratory disease, lung disease, heart disease, brain damage, cancer and premature death in humans. Monitoring tadpole diversity and abundance can therefore be used as a stand-in for assessing the general health of the environment.
