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Avian feathers as a biomonitoring tool to assess heavy metal pollution in a wildlife and bird sanctuary from a tropical coastal ecosystem

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Abstract

In this study, we have assessed the concentrations of four heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb) in the feathers of 11 species of birds from the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary, a protected environment. Concentrations of copper and zinc were detected in all the bird species, cadmium was observed only in two bird species, and lead was below the detection limits for all birds. The order of concentration of metals in the feathers is Zn > Cu > Cd > Pb. Using the multivariate statistical analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), the metal origins were traced to natural, dietary, and manmade sources. In addition, sediment samples were also collected from the sanctuary, to assess the bioaccumulation factor (BAF). The BAF values follow the order Cd < Cu < Zn < Pb. In comparison with worldwide heavy metal reports in bird feathers, lower concentrations of metals are observed in our study area. The tropical marine ecosystem at Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary can be considered as pristine regarding heavy metal pollution. Continuous monitoring of the ecosystem is crucial to sustain the pristine nature of the sanctuary and to attract many more birds.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

All the authors thank the Department of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India for facilitating the study, and convey their gratitude to the Ministry of Earth Science, Government of India (Ref. No.: MoES/36/OOIS/Extra./9/2013) for providing AAS facilities. The authors would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this Research Group Project No. RGP-289.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Earth Science, Government of India (Ref. No.: MoES/36/OOIS/Extra./9/2013) by providing the AAS facilities. This work also supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University through Research Group Project No. RGP-289. 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DNA Barcoding and Marine Genomics Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620024, India

    Vinothkannan Anbazhagan, Emmanuel Charles Partheeban, Ganeshkumar Arumugam, Venugopal Selvasekaran & Rajaram Rajendran

  2. Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Bilal Ahmad Paray, Mohammed Khalid Al-Sadoon & Abdul Rahman Al-Mfarij

Authors
  1. Vinothkannan Anbazhagan
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  2. Emmanuel Charles Partheeban
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  3. Ganeshkumar Arumugam
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  4. Venugopal Selvasekaran
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  5. Rajaram Rajendran
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  6. Bilal Ahmad Paray
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  7. Mohammed Khalid Al-Sadoon
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  8. Abdul Rahman Al-Mfarij
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Contributions

V.A.: conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed data, wrote the paper. E.C.P.: conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed data, wrote the paper. G.A.: analyzed data, wrote the paper. V.S.: collected and identified the samples. R.R.: conceived and designed the experiments, collected and identified the samples, analyzed data, language editing. B.A.P.: data analysis, language editing. M.K.A.-S.: data analysis, language editing. A.R.A.-M.: data analysis, language editing.

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Correspondence to Rajaram Rajendran.

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Anbazhagan, V., Partheeban, E.C., Arumugam, G. et al. Avian feathers as a biomonitoring tool to assess heavy metal pollution in a wildlife and bird sanctuary from a tropical coastal ecosystem. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 38263–38273 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13371-1

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