Evidence from two shale regions that a riparian songbird accumulates metals associated with hydraulic fracturing
Evidence from two shale regions that a riparian songbird accumulates metals associated with hydraulic fracturing
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来自两个页岩地区的证据表明，河岸鸣鸟积累了与水力压裂相关的金属
DOI：
10.1890/es14-00406.1
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发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
J. Toms
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Latta;Leesia C. Marshall;Mack W. Frantz;J. Toms
水力压裂活动污染地表沃茨的风险（即，水力压裂）从地下页岩地层提取气体主要是在局部点源事件的背景下看待的，例如没有污染物进入食物链的证据的泄漏。我们发现，在流域水力压裂发生，一个专性河岸鸣禽和顶级捕食者在水源系统，路易斯安那州的水鸟（Parkesia motacilla），积累与水力压裂过程中的金属。在马塞勒斯和费耶特维尔页岩地区，在有水力压裂活动的地点，鸟类羽毛中的钡和锶含量明显高于没有水力压裂的地点。这项研究没有解决这些金属从页岩层进入食物链的途径，但我们的数据表明，我们研究的河岸系统中的这些金属是最近的起源，因为马塞勒斯地区没有水力压裂活动的参考地点羽毛样本中的钡和锶水平与历史上在马塞勒斯地区任何水力压裂活动之前收集的水鸫羽毛样本没有区别。地区我们在两个地理位置遥远的页岩地层中发现了与水力压裂相关的类似高水平的金属，这表明水力压裂可能会污染地表沃茨，并强调需要进行额外的监测和研究，以进一步评估世界各地日益广泛的非常规天然气资源开发所带来的生态和人类健康风险。
The risk of contamination of surface waters from hydraulic fracturing activities (i.e., fracking) to extract gas from underground shale formations has been viewed primarily in the context of localized point-source events such as spills with no evidence of contaminants entering food chains. We showed that in watersheds where hydraulic fracturing occurs, an obligate riparian songbird and top predator in headwater systems, the Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), accumulated metals associated with the fracking process. In both the Marcellus and Fayetteville shale regions, barium and strontium were found at significantly higher levels in feathers of birds in sites with fracking activity than at sites without fracking. The question of what pathway these metals followed from the shale layers to enter the food chain was not resolved by this study, but our data suggested a recent origin for these metals in the riparian systems we studied because levels of barium and strontium in feather samples from reference sites in the Marcellus Region without fracking activity did not differ from historical samples of waterthrush feathers gathered prior to any fracking in the region. Our finding of similarly elevated levels of metals associated with fracking in two geographically distant shale formations suggests hydraulic fracturing may be contaminating surface waters and underscores the need for additional monitoring and study to further assess ecological and human health risks posed by the increasingly widespread development of unconventional sources of natural gas around the world.