Hernout, Béatrice V, Gibson, Louise J, Walmsley, Adam J et al. (1 more author) (2018) Interspecific variation in the spatially-explicit risks of trace metals to songbirds. Science of the Total Environment. pp. 679-689. ISSN 0048-9697
Abstract
Many wild animals can be adversely affected by trace metals around point sources but little is known about the risks to birds across their ranges. Trace metals in the soil are ubiquitously, if heterogeneously distributed, across the world due to natural and anthropogenic sources. Here, we built, parameterized and applied a spatially explicit modelling framework to determine the risks of soil-associated metals to 30 invertebrate-consuming passerine species across their spatial distribution in England and Wales. The model uses a risk characterization approach to assess the risks of soil-associated metals. Various monitoring datasets were used as input parameters: soil metal concentrations in England and Wales, bird spatial distribution; bird diet, bioaccumulation and toxicity data were extracted from the literature. Our model highlights significant differences in toxicity risks from Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn across the UK distributions of different species; Pb and Zn posed risks to all species across most of species' distributions, with more localised risks to some species of conservation concern from Cd and Cu. No single taxa of invertebrate prey drove avian exposure to metal toxicity. Adults were found to be at higher risk from Pb and Zn toxicity across their distributions than nestlings. This risk was partially driven by diet, with age differences in diets identified. Our spatially explicit model allowed us to identify areas of each species' national distribution in which the population was at risk. Overall, we determined that for all species studied an average of 32.7 ± 0.2%, 8.0 ± 0.1%, 86.1 ± 0.1% and 93.2 ± 0.1% of the songbird spatial distributions in the UK were characterized at risk of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn, respectively. Despite some limitations, our spatially explicit model helps in understanding the risks of metals to wildlife and provides an efficient method of prioritising areas, contaminants and species for environmental risk assessments. The model could be further evaluated using a targeted monitoring dataset of metal concentration in bird tissues. Our model can assess and communicate to stakeholders the potential risks of environmental contaminants to wildlife species at a national and potentially international scale.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Elsevier B.V. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details |
Keywords: | Journal Article |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Environment and Geography (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 28 Jun 2018 10:20 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jan 2025 00:18 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.390 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.390 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:132711 |
Download
Filename: Hernout_et_al_2018_Birds_and_Metals_for_PURE.pdf
Description: Hernout et al 2018 Birds and Metals for PURE
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 2.5