water Article Behavioral Parameters of Planarians (Girardia tigrina) as Fast Screening, Integrative and Cumulative Biomarkers of Environmental Contamination: Preliminary Results Ana M. Córdova López 1,2 , Althiéris de Souza Saraiva 3, Carlos Gravato 4,* , Amadeu M. V. M. Soares 1,5 and Renato Almeida Sarmento 1 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Produção Vegetal, Campus Universitário de Gurupi, Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Gurupi-Tocantins 77402-970, Brazil;
[email protected] 2 Estación Experimental Agraria Vista Florida, Dirección de Desarrollo Tecnológico Agrario, Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA), Carretera Chiclayo-Ferreñafe Km. 8, Chiclayo, Lambayeque 14300, Peru;
[email protected] 3 Laboratório de Agroecossistemas e Ecotoxicologia, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano-Campus Campos Belos, Campos Belos-Goiás 73840-000, Brazil;
[email protected] 4 Faculdade de Ciências & CESAM, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal 5 Departamento de Biologia & CESAM, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Citation: López, A.M.C.; Saraiva, Abstract: The present study aims to use behavioral responses of the freshwater planarian Girardia A.d.S.; Gravato, C.; Soares, A.M.V.M.; tigrina to assess the impact of anthropogenic activities on the aquatic ecosystem of the watershed Sarmento, R.A. Behavioral Araguaia-Tocantins (Tocantins, Brazil). Behavioral responses are integrative and cumulative tools that Parameters of Planarians (Girardia reflect changes in energy allocation in organisms. Thus, feeding rate and locomotion velocity (pLMV) tigrina) as Fast Screening, Integrative were determined to assess the effects induced by the laboratory exposure of adult planarians to water and Cumulative Biomarkers of samples collected in the region of Tocantins-Araguaia, identifying the sampling points affected by Environmental Contamination: contaminants.