Contreras Elise M, von Hippel Frank A, Cameron Skye, Del Simone Kaylah, Amir Abdul Nasir Ami F, Postlethwait John, Wilson Robbie
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America.
Department of Community, Environment & Policy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 25;20(6):epone.0322386. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322386. eCollection 2025.
Mining is an essential part of the Australian economy, but can create environmental concerns due to toxic metal pollution. Surrounding active manganese (Mn) mining sites, such as those on Groote Eylandt, Australia, toxic metal exposure leads to variation in the internal distribution within animals (i.e., tissue tropism) and can exert long-term health effects on wildlife. We aimed to determine if hair of the endangered northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus) or of the northern brown bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus) would be sufficient to monitor internal contamination. We analyzed nine toxic metals (Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) in eight tissues/organs (cerebellum, hair, kidney, liver, lung, neocortex, olfactory bulb, testes) of quolls and bandicoots using inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). We found six significant positive and five significant negative correlations between the concentration of metals in internal tissues and the concentration in hair in quolls, and four significant relationships in bandicoots, all negative. We also found that the concentrations of metals in quoll tissues/organs, except for hair, were significantly higher than in bandicoots. Differences in the magnitude and direction of these relationships may reflect differences in life histories or metabolic rates. The concentration of Mn in hair was significantly higher in quolls collected near the mining sites than in quolls collected at distant locations, and this also appeared to be the case for bandicoots, but we lacked a sufficient sample size to demonstrate this statistically. The concentration of Al in the hair of quolls was also significantly higher near the mining sites. The concentration of Mn in the hair of quolls reflected the concentration of Mn in the cerebellum and neocortex, while the concentration of Al in the hair of quolls reflected Al concentration in the cerebellum, neocortex, liver, and kidney. We conclude that hair analyzed with ICP-OES is an effective biomarker of local exposure to Mn and Al for quolls, and that hair Mn and Al concentration in quolls can be used as a biomarker of concentration of some tissues, such as cerebellum and neocortex. These findings point to hair as a valuable non-invasive method for assessing metal exposure in wildlife that can be useful for management and conservation efforts.
采矿是澳大利亚经济的重要组成部分，但由于有毒金属污染，可能会引发环境问题。在澳大利亚格罗特艾兰岛等地的活跃锰矿开采场周边，有毒金属暴露会导致动物体内分布发生变化（即组织嗜性），并可能对野生动物产生长期健康影响。我们旨在确定濒危的北方袋鼬（Dasyurus hallucatus）或北方褐袋狸（Isoodon macrourus）的毛发是否足以监测体内污染情况。我们使用电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法（ICP - OES）分析了袋鼬和袋狸的八个组织/器官（小脑、毛发、肾脏、肝脏、肺、新皮质、嗅球、睾丸）中的九种有毒金属（铝、镉、钴、铬、铜、锰、镍、铅、锌）。我们发现袋鼬体内组织中的金属浓度与毛发中的浓度之间存在六个显著正相关和五个显著负相关，袋狸中有四个显著关系，均为负相关。我们还发现，除毛发外，袋鼬组织/器官中的金属浓度显著高于袋狸。这些关系在大小和方向上的差异可能反映了生活史或代谢率的差异。在采矿场附近采集的袋鼬毛发中的锰浓度显著高于在远处采集的袋鼬，袋狸似乎也是如此，但我们缺乏足够的样本量进行统计学证明。采矿场附近袋鼬毛发中的铝浓度也显著更高。袋鼬毛发中的锰浓度反映了小脑中的锰浓度，而袋鼬毛发中的铝浓度反映了小脑、新皮质、肝脏和肾脏中的铝浓度。我们得出结论，用ICP - OES分析的毛发是袋鼬局部暴露于锰和铝的有效生物标志物，袋鼬毛发中的锰和铝浓度可作为一些组织（如小脑和新皮质）浓度的生物标志物。这些发现表明，毛发是评估野生动物金属暴露的一种有价值的非侵入性方法，可用于管理和保护工作。
