Heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in feathers of Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys attending the Patagonian Shelf

SECO PON JUAN PBLO; BELTRAME M. ORNELA; MARCOVECCHIO JORGE E.; FAVERO MARCO; GANDINI PATRICIA

MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2011 vol. 72 p. 40 - 45

0141-1136

We investigated the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn among feather tissues in sexes of Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys killed in longliners off Argentina in 2005. We found no different metal concentration with sex for Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and Fe in feathers of adult birds, though there were significant body-size differences between sexes. With the exception of cadmium and lead concentrations in birds from the southern Indian Ocean, on average, the mean concentrations of cooper, iron, and zinc in breast feathers of T. melanophrys were lower than those reported for the species from Georgias del Sur/ South Georgia, the southern Indian Ocean and for other seabirds worldwide, but lead were not. Relatively high lead concentrations have been reported in several tissues and organs of pelagic seabirds, thus further investigations are needed to study levels of lead in different tissues of T. melanophrys feeding off Argentina.