Birds can serve as effective biomonitors of air pollution, yet few studies have quantified external particulate matter accumulation on bird feathers. Biomonitoring of airborne elemental carbon (EC) is of critical significance because EC is a component of particulate matter with adverse effects on air quality and human health. To assess their effectiveness for use in EC monitoring, we compared EC accumulation on bird feathers at two sites that differed in vehicular traffic volume in an urban environment within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area, USA. Moulted flight feathers from domestic chickens were experimentally exposed to ambient EC pollution for 5 days in two urban microenvironments 1.5 km distant from each other that differed in traffic volume––adjacent to an interstate highway and a university campus bus stop. Feathers near the highway accumulated approximately eight times more EC (307 ± 34 μg m⁻² day⁻¹), on average, than feathers near the bus stop (40 ± 9 μg m⁻² day⁻¹). These findings indicate that EC accumulation on feathers varies over short distances within urban areas and that bird feathers potentially can be used for biomonitoring airborne EC.

鸟类可以作为有效的空气污染生物监测器，但是很少有研究量化鸟类羽毛上的外部颗粒物积累。空气中的元素碳（EC）的生物监测至关重要，因为EC是颗粒物的组成部分，会对空气质量和人体健康产生不利影响。为了评估其在EC监测中的有效性，我们比较了美国达拉斯-沃思堡都市圈内城市环境中两个车辆交通量不同的地点的鸟类羽毛上的EC积累。在距离彼此相距1.5公里的两个城市微环境中，实验证明了来自家鸡的蜕皮羽毛暴露于环境EC中5天，这些环境的交通量各不相同-毗邻州际公路和大学校园公交车站。平均而言，^-2天^-1）比公交车站附近的羽毛（40±9μgm ^-2天^-1）。这些发现表明，在城市地区内，羽毛上的EC累积量会在短距离内变化，并且鸟类的羽毛有可能被用于对机载EC进行生物监测。