COMPARISON OF NON-INVASIVE MATRICES FOR METALS AND TRACE ELEMENTS EXPOSURE IN WHITE BREASTED KINGFISHER (HALCYON SMYRNENSIS)

Abstract

Toxic trace elements have the natural tendency to bioaccumulate in the tissues of living organism and a constant exposure to these metals can cause adverse health issues specially in organism present at the top of the food chain (i.e., birds and mammals) due to the ability of trace elements to bio magnify along the trophic levels. The aim of the current study is to determine the tendency of selected eight toxic trace elements i.e., Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Ni and Pb to bioaccumulate in blood, feathers and preen oil of White Breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) in selected study site i.e., Manga Mandi, a peri urban area near Lahore, Pakistan, and to estimate their trophic transfer potential by using food samples of white breasted kingfisher. All the selected trace elements were detected in almost all the samples in heterogenous concentrations. Fe showed the highest concentration among all selected metal in all the samples of feathers, blood, preen oil and the food samples, which signifies the effect of large number of steel industries found in the vicinity of the sampling site. Cd showed the least concentration in each sample. In general, feathers found to be the most contaminated tissue followed by preen oil and blood. However, BAF for Zn is found to be highest i.e., 5.497μg/g while BAF of Fe is found to be lowest in all the tissues as 0.05μg/g, 0.052μg/g and 0.04μg/g in blood, feathers and preen oil respectively. For BCF, Cr, Cd, Cu and Pb showed no concentration while Pb and Zn showed highest concentration in feathers i.e., 17.369μg/g and 127.8μg/g respectively, and Mn and Ni were found highest in preen oil as 1.627μg/g and 6.933μg/g respectively. This signifies soil to be more contaminated than water. Almost all metal showed TTF>1 except Cd which was below detection limit mostly. Mn showed highest likelihood to be bioaccumulated along the trophic level while Cu showed the minimum. Highest TTF value was recorded for preen oil, followed by blood and feathers.