title: Monitoring trace elements in Antarctic penguin chicks from South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.
abstract: The concentration of human activities in the near-shore ecosystems from the northern Antarctic Peninsula area can cause an increasing bioavailability of pollutants for the vulnerable Antarctic biota. Penguin chicks can reflect this potential impact in the rookeries during the breeding season. They also can reflect biomagnification phenomena since they are on the top of the Antarctic food chain. The concentrations of Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd and Pb were measured by ICP-MS in samples of liver, kidney, muscle, bone, feather and stomach content of gentoo, chinstrap and Adélie penguin chicks (n=15 individuals) collected opportunistically in the Islands of King George and Deception (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). The detected levels of some trace elements were not as low as it could be expected in the isolated Antarctic region. Penguin chicks can be useful indicators of trace elements abundance in the study areas.
  Carcasses of Antarctic penguin chicks were used to evaluate the bioavailability of trace elements in the Islands of King George and Deception.
authors: Área de Toxicología, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain. silviajerez@um.es
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Jerez
authors: Miguel
authors: M
authors: Motas
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Benzal
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Diaz
authors: Andrés
authors: A
authors: Barbosa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D046429:Spheniscidae / Q000378:metabolism*; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D014131:Trace Elements