Septic systems, but not sanitary sewer lines, are associated with elevated estradiol in male frog metamorphs from suburban ponds.

Suburban neighborhoods are a dominant type of human land use. Many housing regions globally rely on septic systems, rather than sanitary sewers, for wastewater management. There is evidence that septic systems may contaminate waterbodies more than sewer lines. There is also mounting evidence that human activities contaminate waterways with endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which alter wildlife sexual development. While endocrine disruption is often associated with intense activities such as agriculture or wastewater treatment plant discharges, recent evidence indicates that endocrine disruption is pervasive in frogs from suburban neighborhoods. In conjunction with other putative EDC sources, one hypothesis is that wastewater is contaminating suburban waterways with EDCs derived from pharmaceuticals or personal care products. Here, we measure estradiol (E2) in metamorphosing green frogs (Rana clamitans) from forested ponds and suburban ponds adjacent to either septic tanks or sanitary sewers. We show that E2 is highest in male frogs from septic neighborhoods and that E2 concentrations are significantly lower in male frogs from forested ponds and from ponds near sewers. These results indicate that septic tanks may be contaminating aquatic ecosystems differently than sewer lines. This pattern contrasts prior work showing no difference in EDC contamination or morphological endocrine disruption between septic and sewer neighborhoods, implying that suburbanization may have varying effects at multiple biological scales like physiology and anatomy.

Suburbanization, estrogen contamination, and sex ratio in wild amphibian populations.

Research on endocrine disruption in frog populations, such as shifts in sex ratios and feminization of males, has predominantly focused on agricultural pesticides. Recent evidence suggests that suburban landscapes harbor amphibian populations exhibiting similar levels of endocrine disruption; however the endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) sources are unknown. Here, we show that sex ratios of metamorphosing frogs become increasingly female-dominated along a suburbanization gradient. We further show that suburban ponds are frequently contaminated by the classical estrogen estrone and a variety of EDCs produced by plants (phytoestrogens), and that the diversity of organic EDCs is correlated with the extent of developed land use and cultivated lawn and gardens around a pond. Our work also raises the possibility that trace-element contamination associated with human land use around suburban ponds may be contributing to the estrogenic load within suburban freshwaters and constitutes another source of estrogenic exposure for wildlife. These data suggest novel, unexplored pathways of EDC contamination in human-altered environments. In particular, we propose that vegetation changes associated with suburban neighborhoods (e.g., from forests to lawns and ornamental plants) increase the distribution of phytoestrogens in surface waters. The result of frog sex ratios varying as a function of human land use implicates a role for environmental modulation of sexual differentiation in amphibians, which are assumed to only have genetic sex determination. Overall, we show that endocrine disruption is widespread in suburban frog populations and that the causes are likely diverse.