Biomonitoring of mercury concentration in 16 feather growth locations of wild waterfowls and their healthy food investigation by tropic level and strategy

Heavy metals are ubiquitous elements, highly constant, and nonbiodegradable with long biological half-lives. In among the heavy metals, mercury is a highly toxic non-essential metal of major concern for its harmful environmental effects. Also it causes adverse effects on birds and their populations. Then it needs for an ecosystem to be evaluated. The aim of this study is that investigating different levels of mercury in four species of waterfowls which including Gray Goose (Anser anser), Common teal (Anas crecca), Pintail (Anas acuta) and Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and tropic and strategy levels and taxonomy. The Mercury measured with AMA 254 Advanced Mercury Analyzer. Results showed that there was significant difference between four species in mean mercury concentration (sig < 0.001). Pintail and common teal had highest mercury concentrations with more than 908 ng.g-1 and Gray Goose had lowest mercury concentration with 310 ng.g-1 in total mean mercury accumulation. As another result, in all species, the mercury concentration is lower than the maximum recommended by international organizations but this could be on the verge of an alarm.