Interpolation of Yazd city Air Pollution to Heavy Metals of Lead and Cadmium using Laughing Dove's Feather as Indicator of Urban Environment

Using bio-indicators, like bird's feathers can represent bio-transference of pollutants in the environment components better. This study was conducted to study and interpolate heavy metal pollution in laughing dove’s feather as a bio-indicator.
The heavy metals of Lead and Cadmium were studied in both western and eastern zones of Yazd by feather of laughing dove (Spilopelia senegalensis) as a bio-indicator of environment pollution. To measure the concentration of heavy metals, chemical digestion and atomic absorption spectrometry methods were applied. Finally, the obtained results were interpolated by Kriging method in GIS environment.
The concentration of heavy metals in all samples were 19.88 ± 1.01 μg g-1 for Lead and 0.87 ± 0.03 μg g-1 for Cadmium. The minimum concentration of Lead was 13.87 μg g-1 and its maximum concentration was 31.35 μg g-1. The minimum and maximum concentrations of Cadmium were 0.42 μg g-1 and 1.29 μg g-1, respectively. Lead had higher concentration, while Cadmium had lower concentration than the threshold threat for birds. Interpolation maps in GIS showed higher pollution distribution in the eastern half of Yazd city. Interpolation and statistical analysis of Lead and Cadmium concentrations had similar results showing higher pollution in the eastern half of the city.
Pollution pattern of Yazd represented the effects of human activities and environmental transfer of pollutions on the increase of heavy metal's emissions in the eastern half of the city. The current results showed that laughing dove has suitable biological characteristics to be used as a pollution biological indicator.