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Phthalate pollution in an Amazonian rainforest

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Abstract

Phthalates are ubiquitous contaminants and endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can become trapped in the cuticles of insects, including ants which were recognized as good bioindicators for such pollution. Because phthalates have been noted in developed countries and because they also have been found in the Arctic, a region isolated from direct anthropogenic influence, we hypothesized that they are widespread. So, we looked for their presence on the cuticle of ants gathered from isolated areas of the Amazonian rainforest and along an anthropogenic gradient of pollution (rainforest vs. road sides vs. cities in French Guiana). Phthalate pollution (mainly di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)) was higher on ants gathered in cities and along road sides than on those collected in the pristine rainforest, indicating that it follows a human-mediated gradient of disturbance related to the use of plastics and many other products that contain phthalates in urban zones. Their presence varied with the ant species; the cuticle of Solenopsis saevissima traps higher amount of phthalates than that of compared species. However, the presence of phthalates in isolated areas of pristine rainforests suggests that they are associated both with atmospheric particles and in gaseous form and are transported over long distances by wind, resulting in a worldwide diffusion. These findings suggest that there is no such thing as a “pristine” zone.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this study was provided by a CNRS/Centre d’Études de la Biodiversité Amazonienne (CEBA) project entitled “Phthalate pollution in an Amazonian rainforest” (PPAR). We are grateful to Chloé Fasilleau and Chloé Moyse (École Polytechnique, Université de Tours, France) for the analysis of the data, to Jessica Pearce-Duvet and Andrea Yockey-Dejean for proofreading the manuscript, and to Jacques H. C. Delabie (Laboratório de Mirmecologia, CRC, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil) for the identification of the ants. We would like to thank the staff of the CNRS Nouragues research station and the Laboratoire Environnement de Petit-Saut for furnishing logistical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRBI, Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte, CNRS UMR 7261, Université de Tours, Faculté des Sciences, Parc de Grandmont, 37200, Tours, France

    Alain Lenoir & Raphaël Boulay

  2. Ecolab, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS, Toulouse, France

    Alain Dejean

  3. CNRS, UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, Cirad, INRA, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, 97310, Kourou, France

    Alain Dejean & Axel Touchard

  4. CNRS; UMR 8198, Unité Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie, Université de Lille, Lille, France

    Virginie Cuvillier-Hot

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  1. Alain Lenoir
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  2. Raphaël Boulay
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  3. Alain Dejean
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  4. Axel Touchard
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  5. Virginie Cuvillier-Hot
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Correspondence to Alain Lenoir.

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Lenoir, A., Boulay, R., Dejean, A. et al. Phthalate pollution in an Amazonian rainforest. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 16865–16872 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7141-z

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