Nigeria receives copious annual precipitation to nourish its forests and agriculture, it has an extensive river drainage system, and it possesses valuable mineral deposits that stimulate both commercial and artisan mining activities. The combination of these features complicates Nigeria's efforts to produce adequate amounts of healthy foods to support its population. Toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury, and toxic metalloids such as arsenic, are also present in its mineral deposits and they migrate gradually into the soil and water of Nigeria by natural means. However, mining activities can liberate higher levels of toxic metals, which adversely affect Nigerian ecosystems and its food chains. Thus, environmental pollution due to anthropogenic activities is a major public health concern in Nigeria. This review covers the importance of native Nigerian and African wild and cultivated plants along with livestock and wild animals as sentinel species to evaluate heavy metals as environmental stressors and the use of sentinel species for food safety monitoring and for predicting potential risks to human health.

中文翻译：

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尼日利亚环境重金属生物监测和生物监测的哨兵物种。

尼日利亚每年接收大量降水来滋养其森林和农业，拥有广泛的河流排水系统，并拥有促进商业和手工采矿活动的宝贵矿藏。这些特点的结合使尼日利亚生产足够数量的健康食品以养活其人口的努力变得复杂。铅、镉和汞等有毒重金属和砷等有毒非金属也存在于其矿床中，并通过自然方式逐渐迁移到尼日利亚的土壤和水中。然而，采矿活动会释放出更高水平的有毒金属，这对尼日利亚的生态系统及其食物链产生不利影响。因此，人为活动造成的环境污染是尼日利亚的一个主要公共卫生问题。