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
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Seabirds as monitors of the marine environment
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used stable isotopes of N and C from the same feathers used for mercury measurement, a technique that also permits the monitoring of trophic status over time or between regions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Marine Birds as Sentinels of Environmental Pollution
Joanna Burger,Michael Gochfeld +1 more
TL;DR: Marine birds are useful as bioindicators of environmental pollution in estuarine and marine environments because they are often at the top of the food chain, ubiquitous, and many are abundant and common, making collecting possible as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Seabirds as Monitors of Mercury in the Marine Environment
TL;DR: Experimental evidence that levels of mercury in seabirds show a dose-response relationship, so that increased contamination of the environment causes a corresponding increase in the level in birds gives a good basis for the use of seabird as monitors of mercury.
Journal ArticleDOI
Why are birds' eggs speckled?
TL;DR: It was found that pigment spots specifically demarcated thinner areas of shell, with darker spots marking yet thinner shell than paler spots, so accounting for the eggshell's characteristic spot patterns.
Journal ArticleDOI
Can excrement and feathers of nestling songbirds be used as biomonitors for heavy metal pollution
TL;DR: It is concluded that excrement of great and blue tit nestlings can be used as a biomonitor for heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, and copper), whereas feathers appear only to be suitable for lead pollution.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The Partridge: Pesticides, Predation and Conservation
Kevin E. Church,G. R. Potts +1 more
Occurrence and pathways of lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic in the environment
T.C. Hutchinson,K.M. Meema +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the occurrence, flux, compartmentalization, and residence times of four elements recognized as significant environmental pollutants are examined in detail, as well as their sources and effects on plants, animals, and humans.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of acidification on the availability of toxic metals and calcium to wild birds and mammals.
TL;DR: The effects of acidification on wildlife inhabiting aquatic or semi-aquatic environments are reviewed, with particular reference to the possibility for increased dietary exposure to Hg, Cd, Pb and/or Al, and decreased availability of essential dietary minerals such as Ca.
Book
Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and Arsenic in the Environment
Thomas C. Hutchinson,K. M. Meema +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the extent of worldwide contamination by four important toxic elements: arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, and provide details on pathways and rates at which these four elements cycle in the air, in soils, through crops and native ecosystems and in rivers, lakes and oceans.
Journal ArticleDOI
Bird population studies : relevance to conservation and management
TL;DR: The relevance of population studies to the conservation of threatened birds is examined, with a focus on population dynamics and extinction in heterogenous environments.