School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Centre for Applied Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Mar;30(13):35715-35726. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-24712-z. Epub 2022 Dec 20.
Urban-dwelling birds can be useful biomonitors to assess the impact of the urbanisation on both public and wildlife health. Widely distributed urban bird species, the House crow, was studied for heavy metal accumulation levels from nine cities of South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa that border the Indian Ocean. Feathers were spectroscopically investigated for the deposition of ten heavy metals, i.e. As, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni, iron Fe, Mn, Cr, Cu and Li. Fe and Zn were found to be the most prevalent metals in all sites. Measured concentrations of Pb (4.38-14.77 mg kg) overall, and Fe (935.66 mg kg) and Cu (67.17 mg kg) at some studied sites were above the toxicity levels reported lethal in avian toxicological studies. Multivariate analysis and linear models supported geographical location as a significant predictor for the level of most of the metals. Zn and Cu, generally and Pb, Cd, Mn, Cr at some sites exhibited potential bioaccumulation from surrounding environments. Inter-species comparisons strengthen the inference that the House crow is a reliable bioindicator species for the qualitative assessment of local urban environmental pollution and could be a useful tool for inter-regional monitoring programs.
城市鸟类可以作为有用的生物监测器，评估城市化对公众和野生动物健康的影响。分布广泛的城市鸟类——家八哥，被研究了其在亚洲南部、东南亚和非洲的九个毗邻印度洋的城市中的重金属积累水平。对羽毛进行了光谱分析，以检测十种重金属的沉积，即砷（As）、锌（Zn）、铅（Pb）、镉（Cd）、镍（Ni）、铁（Fe）、锰（Mn）、铬（Cr）、铜（Cu）和锂（Li）。Fe 和 Zn 是所有地点最常见的金属。总体而言，Pb 的测量浓度（4.38-14.77mg/kg），以及在一些研究地点的 Fe（935.66mg/kg）和 Cu（67.17mg/kg），均高于鸟类毒理学研究中报告的致死毒性水平。多元分析和线性模型支持地理位置是大多数金属水平的重要预测因子。Zn 和 Cu，通常还有 Pb、Cd、Mn、Cr 在一些地点表现出了对周围环境的潜在生物累积。种间比较加强了这样的推断，即家八哥是当地城市环境污染定性评估的可靠生物指示物种，并且可以成为区域间监测计划的有用工具。
