Heavy Metal Concentrations in Feathers of the Adélie Penguin and the South-Polar Skua from Cape Royds, Ross Island

• Main Author: de Hamel, Stephanie
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Ross Sea; Ross Island; Royds; Cape Royds; Antarc*; Antarctica; South Polar Skuas
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/14124

Using chemical analysis to detect traces of heavy metals is a popular technique in the science community. In this report, ICP-MS was used to analyse a sample of feathers from both Adélie Penguins and South-polar Skuas from Cape Royds, Ross Island. These two Antarctic bird species are important parts of the southern ocean ecosystem and food web, and understanding the heavy metal accumulation in these predators gives insight into the whole system of the Ross Sea. The results from this paper show that there was a significant difference in the concentrations of Al, Hg, As and Mn between the Adélie feathers and the Skua feathers (P<0.05). The higher trophic feeding level of the Skua explains the bioaccumulation of the Hg and As, but these two metals are also highly toxic to organisms in high levels. Aluminium levels were significantly higher in the Adélies and this is attributed to unsuccessful washing of the feathers and the fact that the Adélies spend more time on the ground were the Aluminium is able to stick to their feathers. Manganese is not as toxic as the other metals and is of less worry, but again, this was seen in higher levels in the Adélies and again could be attributed to possible higher levels in the soil of Cape Royds. Other metal results are compared to baseline data set in other papers in Antarctica and around the world for seabirds