Meeting Abstract
Pollutants, including heavy metals, can interact with animal physiologies in ways that negatively impact fitness. Human activities emit unnatural levels of metal pollutants such as lead into the environment in various ways, including historical use of leaded gasoline, current vehicular emissions, industrial production and other types of catastrophes. Lead is a neurotoxin that is highly persistent in the environment and is thus of particular concern for humans as well as wildlife. From 2014 to 2017 the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis caused lead to leach from pipelines into the drinking water in some neighborhoods. While human residents were belatedly alerted to avoid ingestion of lead-contaminated water, there was not a similar caution taken when watering lawns or otherwise allowing the drinking water to exit Flint homes and enter the environment. Although water levels are now reduced, lead is highly persistent and tends to remain in the upper layers of soil where it is bioavailable to wildlife. Foraging differences, however, may drive patterns of lead exposure across species and may influence bioaccumulation despite the fact that species may forage in the same site. Omnivorous songbirds forage for invertebrates by digging into the soil, potentially exposing them to soil lead, while granivores forage at the tops of plants for seeds or in feeders. This research explores bird blood lead levels of both omnivores and granivores in Flint, MI in watered and unwatered sites in comparison to reference sites within southeast MI. This study investigates the impact of the Flint, MI water crisis on lead exposure of urban songbirds, as well as how diet impacts lead accumulation.
