Assessing environmental pollution in birds: a new methodological approach for interpreting bioaccumulation of trace elements in feather shafts using geochemical sediment data
Assessing environmental pollution in birds: a new methodological approach for interpreting bioaccumulation of trace elements in feather shafts using geochemical sediment data
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DOI：
10.1111/2041-210x.12644
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发表时间：
2017-01
影响因子：
6.6
通讯作者：
Fabrizio Borghesi;E. Dinelli;Francesca Migani;A. Béchet;M. Rendón-Martos;J. Amat;S. Sommer;Mark A. F. Gillingham
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Fabrizio Borghesi;E. Dinelli;Francesca Migani;A. Béchet;M. Rendón-Martos;J. Amat;S. Sommer;Mark A. F. Gillingham
环境中微量元素的组成对生态系统、种群健康和个体健康都有重要影响。因此，仔细评估微量元素的生物积累是调查污染对生态影响的研究的核心。集群鸟类是重要的生物指示剂，因为非侵入性采样可以通过鸡羽毛的采样很容易地实现，这控制了一些变异性的混杂因素（年龄和环境异质性）。然而，一个额外的混杂因素，外部污染（ExCo），即使在清洗羽毛后仍然存在，在文献中经常被忽视。我们开发了一种新的方法来可靠地解释生物富集的10种微量元素（As，Cd，Cr，Cu，Hg，Ni，Pb，Se，Sn和Zn）在羽毛中使用鸡的殖民地物种：大火烈鸟，Phoenacetterus roseus。首先，仅使用轴来移除叶片中保留的ExCo。其次，我们进行了彻底的清洗。第三，我们采用了一种新的分析方法来控制ExCo，该方法假设ExCo主要是由于粘附的沉积物颗粒，并且每个微量元素的相对浓度将与采样点的沉积物地球化学组成相似。我们通过比较清洗和未清洗羽毛的微量元素组成和颗粒组成（通过扫描电子显微镜和质谱法）验证了这种新方法。洗涤程序除去>99%的K，表明盐中的大部分ExCo被除去。扫描电子显微镜和质谱分析表明，一些沉积物颗粒在洗涤后仍然存在，特别是粘土，这可能严重影响生物累积性的解释。我们成功地控制了ExCo的比例，由于沉积物样品的地球化学指纹计算ExCo。我们的方法导致保守估计生物积累的As，Cd，Cr，Cu，Hg，Ni，Pb，Se，Sn和Zn。我们已经验证了一种新的更可靠的方法，分析羽毛中的微量元素浓度，有效地控制行政长官，如果地球化学沉积物数据可以有意义地比较，行政长官的羽毛。我们已经证明，忽视行政会议导致潜在的错误结论，我们敦促在这项研究中应用的方法在未来的研究中加以考虑。
Environmental trace element composition can have an important impact on ecosystem and population health as well individual fitness. Therefore, carefully assessing bioaccumulation of trace elements is central to studies investigating the ecological impact of pollution. Colonial birds are important bioindicators since non‐invasive sampling can easily be achieved through sampling of chick feathers, which controls for some confounding factors of variability (age and environmental heterogeneity). However, an additional confounding factor, external contamination (ExCo), which remains even after washing feathers, has frequently been overlooked in the literature. We developed a new method to reliably interpret bioaccumulation of 10 trace elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn and Zn) in feathers using chicks of a colonial species: the Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus. First, only shafts were used to remove ExCo retained in vanes. Secondly, we applied a thorough washing procedure. Thirdly, we applied a new analytical method to control for ExCo, which assumes that ExCo is mainly due to adhered sediment particles and that the relative concentration of each trace element will be similar to the sediment geochemical composition of sampling sites. We validated this new methodology by comparing trace element composition and particle composition (by scanning electron microscopy and mass spectrometry) of washed and unwashed feathers. The washing procedure removed >99% of K indicating that most of the ExCo from salt was removed. Scanning electron microscopy and mass spectrometry revealed that some sediment particles remained after washing, especially clays which are likely to severely bias bioaccumulation interpretation. We successfully controlled for ExCo by calculating the ratio of ExCo due to sediment using the geochemical fingerprint of sediment samples. Our methodology leads to conservative estimates of bioaccumulation for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn and Zn. We have validated a new more reliable method of analysing trace element concentrations in feathers, which effectively controls for ExCo, if geochemical sediment data can be meaningfully compared to ExCo of feathers. We have demonstrated that overlooking ExCo leads to potentially erroneous conclusions, and we urge that the method applied in this study be considered in future studies.