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 ArticleDOI
Continuing Persistence and Biomagnification of DDT and Metabolites in Northern Temperate Fruit Orchard Avian Food Chains.
Robert Kesic,John E. Elliott,Kate M. Fremlin,Lewis Gauthier,Ken G. Drouillard,Christine A. Bishop +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the biological fate of these DDT-related (DDT-r) compounds at the same sites/region 26 years after a previous study by collecting soil, earthworms, and American robin eggs from apple, cherry, and pear orchards; characterizing the diet and trophic positions of our biota using stable isotope analyses of δ13 C and δ15 N.
Book ChapterDOI
A Nondestructive Method to Identify POP Contamination Sources in Omnivorous Seabirds
TL;DR: The aim of this literature review was to evaluate the potential of using feathers as a nondestructive method to determine sources of POP contamination in individual gulls and showed that high concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs in feathers together with a large proportion of less bioaccumulative congeners may indicate that the contamination originates from landfills.
Journal ArticleDOI
Drawing the baseline of trace element levels in the vulnerable Mediterranean osprey Pandion haliaetus: variations by breeding location, habitats, and egg components.
TL;DR: This study represents a first regional scale survey for the vulnerable Mediterranean osprey populations and provides baseline data for their long-term biomonitoring and stresses how the choice of the biological material can have significant implications for the correct evaluation of contamination.
Journal ArticleDOI
An evaluation of excrement as an alternative to blood for characterizing lead exposure in bald eagles
TL;DR: Excrement has the potential to be a valuable tool for investigating Pb exposure in bald eagles and was found to be statistically significantly related to blood Pb levels when excrement levels were low, which is similar to blood levels.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assessment of habitat change on bird diversity and bird-habitat network of a Coral Island, South China Sea.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper assessed the roles of different habitats at the species level and community level of birds using topological and network analysis on Dong Island of the Paracel Islands, South China Sea.
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