Frogs and toads are frequently used
as bioindicators of inorganic pollutants. Anthropogenic stress
was assessed in three lakes from Hungary (Naplás, Frog Pond and Lak-völgyi Reservoir), by studying the
concentration of trace elements in the toe bones of
Bufo bufo
. Lake Naplás was the most affected by
anthropogenic effects, but Frog Pond was also characterized by higher anthropogenic activities than the Lak-
völgyi Reservoir. The following trace elements were anal
ysed in toe bones, water an
d soil samples: Al, Ba, Ca,
Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, P, Pb, V and Zn. In toe bones no significant differences were found in the Ca, P and Zn
concentrations among the studied lakes. On the other hand, the Mg, Al, Fe, Ba, Pb and V concentrations were
significantly higher in toe bones at Lake Naplás than
at the two other lakes. The use of the bioaccumulation
factor (BAF) showed that the potent
ial of bioaccumulation from the soil was low for toads. For water, the
BAFs values for Cu, Mn, V and Zn indicated that to
ads may accumulate these elements from water. Our
results demonstrated that the accumulation rate of me
tals depends on several fact
ors, including dietary and
exposure time, stage of development – i.e. tadpole
or adult. In summary, the analysis of toe bones
demonstrated that toads may be useful indicator organisms; moreover, using modern analytical methods
there was no need to kill these an
imals for bioaccumulation studies
