Maria José Aires do Amaral

For my PhD I have been developing research on the impact of pesticides on reptile populations. Several recent reviews, have stressed the need to include reptiles in ecotoxicological investigations because the degree to which contaminants cause population-level effects in reptiles remains largely unknown.
In all fields of toxicology, specific species have been adopted as surrogate models for field and laboratory research. In Iberian Peninsula lacertids constitute 70% of the lizard fauna and as a group they are likely to provide a valuable model for reptile ecotoxicological research. In this study, we propose a tiered approach to the toxicological assessment of small-farm agricultural practice, using Podarcis bocagei as a bio-indicator species.