Abstract
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−1) overall, and Fe (935.66 mg kg−1) and Cu (67.17 mg kg−1) 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.
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Acknowledgements
We are highly thankful to Muhammad Farooq Sabar, University of The Punjab and WWF Pakistan for providing support during field sampling in Pakistan. The authors wish to express gratitude to Ms Nur Liyana Afifah Zar Khan, Technical Officer in Civil Engineering Laboratory, Monash University Malaysia, for her assistance in the metal analysis.
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This research was supported by University Graduate Research Grant from the School of Science, Monash University Malaysia. This study was done as the part of the PhD project of the first author in the Monash University Malaysia.
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FI participated in sample collection, performance and optimization of analysis and manuscript writing. RW, QA, BKS and SR participated in development of ideas and commented on manuscript. UKA, AT and AAH provided field data, samples and technical support. All the authors read and approve the final manuscript.
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Iqbal, F., Wilson, R., Ayub, Q. et al. Biomonitoring of heavy metals in the feathers of House crow (Corvus splendens) from some metropolitans of Asia and Africa. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 35715–35726 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24712-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24712-z