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Bird feathers are potential biomonitors for airborne elemental carbon

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Abstract

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.

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The dataset related to this article will be hosted on the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Pitre family for collecting moulted feathers used in this study. We are also grateful to David Hoeinghaus for generously providing laboratory resources needed to conduct this research, and to Brian Wheeler and the grounds staff at the University of North Texas for campus support. We are indebted to three anonymous reviewers for providing excellent feedback on our manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (CAREER #1552410 to AGPG), the University of North Texas Office of the Provost, Honors College, College of Visual Arts and Design, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the Department of Geography and the Environment, and the Department of Studio Art. Sponsors played no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

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Author notes

  1. Claire Pitre

    Present address: Albrecht Daniel Thaer - Institute for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Invalidenstraße 42, 10115, Berlin, Germany

  2. Jenna E. Rindy

    Present address: Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA, USA

  3. Jeff A. Johnson

    Present address: Wolf Creek Operating Foundation, 1026 Soldier Creek Road, Wolf, WY, 82844, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and the Environment, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #305279, Denton, TX, USA

    Claire Pitre, Alexandra G. Ponette-González, Jenna E. Rindy & Matthew Fry

  2. Department of Studio Art, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 1155 Union Circle #305100, USA

    Anna Lee & Dornith Doherty

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #310559, Denton, TX, USA

    Jeff A. Johnson

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  1. Claire Pitre
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Contributions

Pitre: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing (original draft). Ponette-González: Conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing (original draft), visualization, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. Doherty: Writing (review and editing), visualization, supervision, funding acquisition. Lee: Methodology, writing (review and editing), visualization. Rindy: Methodology, formal analysis, writing (review and editing). Fry: Methodology, writing (review and editing), supervision, funding acquisition. Johnson: Conceptualization, methodology, writing (review and editing), supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra G. Ponette-González.

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Pitre, C., Ponette-González, A.G., Rindy, J.E. et al. Bird feathers are potential biomonitors for airborne elemental carbon. Environ Monit Assess 193, 35 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08804-2

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