Reptiles paraquat

Biomagnification potential of paraquat in aquatic food chains, with special reference to plants, plant detritus, amphibians, and reptiles... 

In Argentina, paraquat concentrations used to control aquatic weeds is set at 0.1-0.2 mg/L, with no more than 4 applications each year. However, some aquatic invertebrates, especially early developmental stages of crustaceans, are unusually sensitive to paraquat. Adverse effects to aquatic invertebrates are documented in the range of 1.0-100.0 xg/L. For this reason, paraquat should be used with caution in estuarine and marshy areas. Fish seem to be safe against aquatic weed control concentrations of < 1.0 mg paraquat/L. But aquatic plants tend to accumulate paraquat from the medium accordingly, more research is needed on the effects of ingestion of contaminated plants and plant detritus by amphibians, reptiles, and other aquatic fauna. 

More information is needed in several areas in order to establish effective criteria for the protection of sensitive species of fish and wildlife against paraquat. These include flux rates of paraquat from soil into terrestrial food chains biomagnification potential of paraquat in aquatic food chains, with special reference to plants, plant detritus, amphibians and reptiles toxicokinetics of mixtures of paraquat and other herbicides applied concomitantly and the implications of the high sensitivities of crustacean larvae and waterfowl embryos to paraquat. 

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