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

Juan Pablo Seco Pon , Ornela Beltrame (1, 2) , Jorge Marcovecchio (2) , Marco Favero , Patricia Gandini (3)

1 Departamento de Biología [Mar del Plata]
2 IADO - Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía [Bahía Blanca]
3 UNPA - Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral

We investigated the concentrations of cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, nickel, lead and zinc among feather tissues in sexes of Black-browed Albatross killed in longliners off Argentina in 2005. We found no different metal concentration with sex for cadmium, copper, iron, lead and zinc in feathers of adult birds, though there were significant body-size differences between sexes. However, the concentrations of trace metals differed significantly among the type of feather within individual bird. The mean concentrations of copper, iron, and zinc in breast feathers of were lower than those reported for the species from Georgias del Sur/ South Georgia, the southern Indian Ocean and for other seabirds' worldwide. While cadmium fall within the known range of concentrations for bird feathers lead were not. Our results may be indicating that level of pollution in Patagonia may not be as negligible as previously thought at least for some trace metals.

Mots clés: Black-browed Albatross; Feather tissues; Trace metals; Ocean space; Patagonian Shelf; Pollution monitoring; Seabirds; Argentina

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Juan Pablo Seco Pon, Ornela Beltrame, Jorge Marcovecchio, Marco Favero, Patricia Gandini. Trace metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in feathers of Black-browed Albatross attending the Patagonian Shelf. Marine Environmental Research, 2011, 72 (1-2), pp.40. ⟨10.1016/j.marenvres.2011.04.004⟩. ⟨hal-00720183⟩