A first evaluation on the use of Ardea albus feathers as bioindicators of mercury burden in Amazonian ecosystems

We evaluated in this study the total mercury concentration in feathers of Ardea albus collected in a colony located in the city of Belem-PA, Brazil in a prospective trial for its use as bioindicators of mercury burden in Amazonia ecosystems. An Atomic absorption spectrophotometry with gold amalgamation was used for the metal determination. The total mercury average concentration in body feathers was 2.2 ± 1.5 µg.g-1 and 1.3 ± 0.9 µg.g-1 in wing feathers. No correlation was observed between total mercury concentration and the length of body or wing feathers. Total mercury concentration was above 5 µg.g-1 dry weight in only one body feather sample.