A first evaluation of the usefulness of feathers of nestling predatory birds for non-destructive biomonitoring of persistent organic pollutants

• Published in: Environment International
• Main Authors: Igor Eulaers, Adrian Covaci, Dorte Herzke, Marcel Eens, Christian Sonne, Truls Moum, Lisbeth Schnug, Sveinn Are Hanssen, Trond Vidar Johnsen, Jan Ove Bustnes, Veerle L.B. Jaspers
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2011
• Subjects: envir; Norway; Accipiter gentilis; Haliaeetus albicilla; Northern Norway; Aquila chrysaetos
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2010.12.007; https://doaj.org/article/c4be0030dc414ca28b8b4d91e1e24a13

In previous studies, feathers of adult predatory birds have been evaluated as valid non-destructive biomonitor matrices for persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In this study, we assessed for the first time the usefulness of nestling raptor feathers for non-destructive biomonitoring of POPs. For this purpose, we collected body feathers and blood of nestlings from three avian top predators from northern Norway: northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). We were able to detect a broad spectrum of legacy POPs in the nestling feathers of all three species (Σ PCBs: 6.78–140 ng g−1; DDE: 3.15–145 ng g−1; Σ PBDEs: 0.538–7.56 ng g−1). However, these concentrations were lower compared to other studies on raptor species, probably due to the aspect of monitoring of nestlings instead of adults. Besides their analytical suitability, nestling feathers also appear to be biologically informative: concentrations of most POPs in nestling feathers showed strong and significant correlations with blood plasma concentrations in all species (p<0.050; 0.775