Seabird transported contaminants are dispersed in island ecosystems
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.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-06-04T00:00:00
- Citation identifier
-
doi:10.25959/56N1-EC97
- Title
- Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-06-04
- Citation identifier
- ISO 26324:2012
- Citation identifier
- https://doi.org/10.25959/56N1-EC97
Resource provider
Author
- Status
- Completed
Author
Extent
![](https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/api/regions/geom.png?geomsrs=EPSG:4326&geom=POLYGON((159.080475%20-31.529345,159.080475%20-31.519614,159.066705%20-31.519614,159.066705%20-31.529345,159.080475%20-31.529345)))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2019-04-26 2021-05-10
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- Keywords (Theme)
-
- Seabirds
- Guano
- Bioaccumulation
- Plastics
- Procellariiformes
- Keywords (Taxon)
-
- Ardenna
- Global Change Master Directory Earth Science Keywords, Version 8.5
-
- EARTH SCIENCE | AGRICULTURE | SOILS | HEAVY METALS
- EARTH SCIENCE | ATMOSPHERE | ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY | TRACE ELEMENTS/TRACE METALS
- EARTH SCIENCE | BIOSPHERE | ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS | ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS
- EARTH SCIENCE | AGRICULTURE | ANIMAL SCIENCE | ANIMAL MANURE AND WASTE
- EARTH SCIENCE | AGRICULTURE | SOILS
- EARTH SCIENCE | AGRICULTURE | SOILS | SOIL CHEMISTRY
- AODN Discovery Parameter Vocabulary
-
- Concentration of Arsenic
- Concentration of Lead
- Concentration of Cadmium
- Concentration of Chromium
- Concentration of Copper
- Concentration of Mercury
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- Data, products and services from IMAS are provided "as is" without any warranty as to fitness for a particular purpose.
Resource constraints
- Other constraints
- This dataset is the intellectual property of the University of Tasmania (UTAS) through the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).
Resource constraints
- Linkage
-
https://licensebuttons.net/l/by/4.0/88x31.png
License Graphic
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Website
-
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License Text
- Other constraints
- Cite data as: Grant, M. (2024). Seabird transported contaminants are dispersed in island ecosystems [Data set]. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. https://doi.org/10.25959/56N1-EC97
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Supplemental Information
- Grant, ML, Bond, AL, Reichman, SM, Lavers, JL (2024). Seabird transported contaminants are dispersed in island ecosystems. Chemosphere [in press]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142483
Content Information
- Content type
- Physical measurement
Identifier
- Code
- Concentration of Arsenic
- Name
- Arsenic
- Name
- mg/kg
Identifier
- Code
- Concentration of Lead
- Name
- mg/kg
Identifier
- Code
- Concentration of Cadmium
- Name
- Cadmium
- Name
- mg/kg
Identifier
- Code
- Concentration of Chromium
- Name
- Chromium
- Name
- mg/kg
Identifier
- Code
- Concentration of Copper
- Name
- Copper
- Name
- mg/kg
Identifier
- Code
- Concentration of Mercury
- Name
- Mercury
- Name
- mg/kg
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- Microsoft Excel
- OnLine resource
- DATA ACCESS - contaminant concentrations raw data [.xlsx]
- OnLine resource
- PUBLICATION - associated publication
Resource lineage
- 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.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- urn:uuid/f0e28662-b487-4d2a-bac0-80f6860a08f9
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distributor
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Name
- IMAS Dataset level record
- Metadata linkage
-
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/f0e28662-b487-4d2a-bac0-80f6860a08f9
Point of truth URL of this metadata record
- Date info (Creation)
- 2024-06-01T00:00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2024-08-30T14:33:51
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-3:2018
Overviews
Spatial extent
![](https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/api/regions/geom.png?geomsrs=EPSG:4326&geom=POLYGON((159.080475%20-31.529345,159.080475%20-31.519614,159.066705%20-31.519614,159.066705%20-31.529345,159.080475%20-31.529345)))
Provided by
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