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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Workshop - inventory of existing raptor contamnant monitoring activities
TL;DR: The EURAPMON workshop “Inventory of existing raptor contaminant monitoring activities in Europe” was held at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam between the 28 and 30 of November, 2012.
DissertationDOI
Passerine Exposure to Metal Contaminants from Oilsands Mining in the Athabasca Region of Northeastern Alberta, Canada
Influence of the diet on the bioaccumulation of hea vy metals in small burrowing
TL;DR: Diet does not seem to be discriminant for cadmium concentrations in the seabirds, and the influence of fish in the diet on the mercury levels is the most evident result.
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