Lead Levels in the Bones of Small Rodents from Alpine and Subalpine Habitats in the Tian-Shan Mountains, Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

High mountain areas are an appropriate indicator of anthropogenic lead (Pb), which can reach remote mountain ranges through long distance atmospheric transport. We compared the content of Pb in ecologically equivalent rodent species from Tian-Shan with European mountain ranges including the Tatra, Vitosha and Rila mountains. We used bone tissues from terminal tail vertebrae of small rodents for detection of Pb levels through electro-thermal atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The tailbones of Tian-Shan rodents had significantly lower Pb levels than snow voles from the Tatra Mountains, but there was no significant difference in comparison with the Vitosha and Rila mountains. We can conclude that Tian-Shan shows lower pollution by Pb than the Tatras, which may be a result of prolonged industrialization of north-western Europe and strongly prevailing west winds in this region.

Mercury in the feathers of Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) from Western Carpathian, Slovakia

“…The measured values of mercury in the feathers of the Carpathian eagle population did not significantly differ between the eagles which hunt in forests and those which hunt also in alpine zone. Our results are a bit inconsistent with large number of studies that describe animals inhabiting higher elevations as being exposed to higher concentrations of pollutants, mainly due to deposition of pollutants on mountain ridges (Ballová and Janiga 2018 ; Ballová et al 2019 ; Janiga et al 2019 ). One possible explanation is that forests tend to trap toxic metals from the atmosphere and thus provide protection from pollutants (Kocić et al 2014 ; Huang et al 2017 ).…”

“…The Western Carpathians, in which Slovakia is located, show higher levels of metal pollution (Ballová and Janiga 2018 ; Ballová et al 2019 ). Several studies confirmed our assumptions that heavy metal pollution in alpine mountain ranges located in the Western Carpathians is caused by long-distance transport of air pollution from Polish and Slovakian industrial locations (Camarero et al 2009 ; Janiga and Haas 2019 ).…”

Comparison of Element Concentrations (Ba, Mn, Pb, Sr, Zn) in the Bones and Teeth of Wild Ruminants from the West Carpathians and the Tian-Shan Mountains as Indicators of Air Pollution

“…We have previously confirmed that the Carpathians are still one of the most polluted mountain ranges, and indicated that the Tatra mountains (West Carpathians) are more polluted by Pb than Tian-Shan [17,18]. In our previous study, we compared atmospheric pollution between Tian-Shan and European high mountain ranges (the Tatra, Vitosha and Rila mountains) via short living rodent species [17].…”