Book ChapterDOI
Birds as monitors of pollutants
Robert W. Furness
- pp 86-143
TLDR
In this paper, the authors argue that birds may reflect pollutant hazards to humans better than do most invertebrates, since they are high in food chains and have more complex physiology.Abstract:
Several authors of books on the monitoring of pollution have advocated the use of animals as monitors in terrestrial and aquatic environments (e.g. Phillips, 1980; Schubert, 1985). Such studies tend to emphasize the use of sedentary invertebrate animals as biomonitors. By comparison, birds suffer from several apparent drawbacks. They are mobile, so pollutants will be picked up from a wide, often ill-defined, area; they are long-lived, so pollutant burdens may be integrated in some complex way over time; and they have more complex physiology, and so may regulate pollutant levels better then invertebrates. Furthermore, birds tend to be more difficult to sample, and killing birds may be unacceptable for conservation or ethical reasons. However, some of these characteristics may at times be positively advantegeous. Integrating pollutant levels over greater areas or timescales or over food webs, may be useful, provided that species are chosen carefully. Less sampling may be necessary if birds can reflect pollutant levels in the whole ecosystem or over a broad area. In addition, since they are high in food chains, birds may reflect pollutant hazards to humans better than do most invertebrates. It is also significant that birds are extremely popular animals with the general public, so pollutant hazards to them are likely to receive greater attention than threats to invertebrates.read more
Citations
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Journal Article
Heavy metal concentration in tissues of Puffinus gravis sampled on the Brazilian coast
Edison Barbieri,Carlos Alexandre Borges Garcia,Elisangela de Andrade Passos,Kennedy Alexandre Souza Aragão,José do Patrocínio Hora Alves +4 more
TL;DR: The concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, Mn and Ni were determined in liver and kidney samples of adult and juvenile Puffinus gravis by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mercury pollution in three species of waders from Shadegan wetlands at the head of the Persian Gulf.
Rasool Zamani-Ahmadmahmoodi,Abbas Esmaili-Sari,Mozhgan Savabieasfahani,Seyed Mahmoud Ghasempouri,Nader Bahramifar,Nader Bahramifar +5 more
TL;DR: Mercury (Hg) in tissues of three waders from Shadegan Wetlands is reported, and differences in Hg among waders could have resulted from diverse feeding habitats and dissimilar foraging sites.
Journal ArticleDOI
Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) and Little egret (Egretta garzetta) as monitors of mercury contamination in Shadegan Wetlands of south-western Iran.
Rasool Zamani-Ahmadmahmoodi,Abbas Esmaili-Sari,Mozhgan Savabieasfahani,Nader Bahramifar,Nader Bahramifar +4 more
TL;DR: An interesting regional comparison between mercury concentrations in the feather of Little egret chicks, from China, Hong Kong, and Pakistan, and adult Little egrets, from Shadegan wetlands, revealed higher mercury in the adult of the species, as one would expect.
Journal ArticleDOI
Identifying Sources and Biomagnification of Persistent Organic Contaminants in Biota from Mountain Streams of Southwestern British Columbia, Canada
TL;DR: The results suggest that atmospheric sources are the main contributor of contaminants detected in biota from the region and that biomagnification is a common pathway for accumulation in lotic predators such as the American dipper.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Population Ecology of Raptors
P. C. Lack,Ian Newton +1 more
TL;DR: Relationship between the sexes dispersion breeding density winter density problems concerning nest-sites breeding strategies breeding rates behaviour in the breeding season fidelity to breeding areas movements mortality human persecution DDT and other organo-chlorines other pollutants and pesticides conservation management breeding from captive birds scientific names of raptors.
Book
Population Ecology of Raptors
TL;DR: The relationship between the sexes dispersion breeding density winter density problems concerning nest-sites breeding strategies breeding rates behaviour in the breeding season fidelity to breeding areas movements mortality human persecution DDT and other organo-chlorines other pollutants and pesticides conservation management breeding from captive birds scientific names of raptors.
Book
Cadmium in the environment
TL;DR: In this paper, a review on cadmium in the environment has been performed under a contract between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Hygiene of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden.
Journal ArticleDOI
Methylmercury Poisoning in Iraq
F Bakir,S. F. Damluji,Laman Amin-Zaki,M. Murtadha,A. Khalidi,Naseer Al-Rawi,S. Tikriti,H. I. Dhahir,Thomas W. Clarkson,J.C. Smith,Richard A. Doherty +10 more