Brief description
Seabirds are long-range transporters of nutrients and contaminants, linking marine feeding areas with terrestrial breeding and roosting sites. By depositing nutrient-rich guano, which acts as a fertiliser, seabirds can substantially influence the terrestrial environment in which they reside. However, increasing pollution of the marine environment has resulted in guano becoming similarly polluted. Here, we determined metal and metalloid concentrations (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb) in Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) guano, soil, terrestrial flora, and primary consumers and used an ecological approach to assess whether the trace elements in guano were bioaccumulating and contaminating the surrounding environment. Concentrations in guano were higher than those of other Procellariiformes documented in the literature, which may be influenced by the high amounts of plastics that this species of shearwater ingests. Soil samples from shearwater colonies had significantly higher concentrations of all metals, except for Pb, than soils from control sites and formerly occupied areas. Concentrations in terrestrial primary producers and primary consumers were not as marked, and for many contaminants there was no significant difference observed across levels of ornithogenic input. We conclude that Flesh-footed Shearwaters are transporters of marine derived contaminants to the Lord Howe Island terrestrial environment.Lineage
Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned
Statement: There is one spreadsheet included in this record. It contains the raw data for this paper and includes the concentrations (mg/kg) of the following metals and metalloids (As, Hg, Pb, Cd, Cu, Cr) in the following samples (guano, leopard slugs, soil, kentia palm leaves) collected from three areas on Lord Howe Island, Australia spanning a gradient of seabird influence. The first site is a Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) colony (guano was collected here only), the second site was a Flesh-footed Shearwater colony in the past but has been abandoned for ~20 years, and the last site acted as the control (i.e., no active or historical seabird colony present). These sites are denoted as Current Colony; CC, Abandoned Colony; AC, and Never Colonised; NC, respectively.
The samples were collected as follows:
GUANO: Flesh-footed Shearwater adults were placed in a sterile box until defecation, or until the holding time reached a maximum of 10 minutes. Guano was scraped into an Eppendorf tube and frozen. Guano samples from chicks were collected from euthanised birds. For these samples, the last 10 cm of the gastro-intestinal tract (including the cloaca) was removed and the contents expelled into an Eppendorf tube and frozen.
SOIL: 10 soil samples were collected from each site, 5 from a depth range of 0-5 cm, and 5 from a depth range of 25-30 cm.
KENTIA PALM LEAVES: The youngest fully expanded leaf from 5 randomly selected kentia palms was collected from each site. Leaves were dried.
LEOPARD SLUG: ~10 leopard slugs were collected from each site at night using a spotlight. Slugs were then euthanised and dessicated.
All samples were analysed for As, Hg, Pb, Cd, Cu, and Cr by ICP-MS.
Issued: 04 06 2024
Data time period: 2019-04-26 to 2021-05-10
text: westlimit=159.066705; southlimit=-31.529345; eastlimit=159.080475; northlimit=-31.519614
Subjects
AGRICULTURE |
ANIMAL MANURE AND WASTE |
ANIMAL SCIENCE |
ATMOSPHERE |
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY |
Ardenna |
Biological Sciences |
BIOSPHERE |
Bioaccumulation |
Concentration of Arsenic |
Concentration of Cadmium |
Concentration of Chromium |
Concentration of Copper |
Concentration of Lead |
Concentration of Mercury |
EARTH SCIENCE |
ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS |
Ecology |
ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS |
Environmental Science and Management |
Environmental Sciences |
Guano |
HEAVY METALS |
Marine and Estuarine Ecology (Incl. Marine Ichthyology) |
Offshore Islands (Australia) | Offshore Islands (Australia) | Lord Howe Island |
Plastics |
Procellariiformes |
SOIL CHEMISTRY |
SOILS |
Seabirds |
TRACE ELEMENTS/TRACE METALS |
Wildlife and Habitat Management |
User Contributed Tags
Login to tag this record with meaningful keywords to make it easier to discover
Other Information
(DATA ACCESS - contaminant concentrations raw data [.xlsx])
(PUBLICATION - associated publication)
Identifiers
- DOI : 10.25959/56N1-EC97
- global : f0e28662-b487-4d2a-bac0-80f6860a08f9
