Heavy Metal Concentrations In Tree Sparrow(Passer Montanus) Of Jixi Mining And Its Application In Evaluating The Regional Heavy Metal Pollution

The mining industry, which was one of the basic industries, was also important energy source of the nation. It played a key role in the national economic and social development. However, the pollution of ecological environment will be caused in mining area at the same time. The basic industries, which could cause severe damage of the ecological balance, made the vegetation recovery and ecological reconstruction become the most important problem to be researched for environmental protection in mining area. This was also a primary ecological problem for each mining area in China that needed to be faced after the mineral extraction. Jixi was a significant mining city in Heilongjiang Province; meanwhile, it was one of the production bases of charred coal in China.The adults (n=110) and juveniles (n=10) of Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus), and the hair of men (n=292) who were18-30(n=92) or31-59(n=108) or above60years old (n=92) were collected from Didao mining area (DMA), urban district of Jixi (UDJ) and Phoenix Mountain national nature reserve (PMR) in Heilongjiang province, from November2009to October2010. All of the samples were prepared by Open-digestion method. Then trace metal concentrations of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) were measured by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.The results showed that for most elements mean concentrations of Tree Sparrow from3study sites, showed the following order:DMA> UDJ> PMR, with the exception of Zn and Cu. There were significant difference among the3sites, but insignificant for Mn concentrations in muscle and feathers, Cd and Cr in heart, and Cu in feathers. Most metal levels in adults were higher than those in juveniles. Significant age differences were found for Mn levels in liver, Zn levels in muscle, heart and feathers (at the0.01level); and for Cu in liver, Cd in feathers (at the0.05level). Levels of Mn, Cu and Zn from all of sites were highest in summer. But metal concentrations of Pb (from DMA and PMR), Cd (from DMA) and Cr (from PMR) in summer were less than those in winter or autumn. Among the four measured tissues, the highest levels of birds were generally found in feathers or liver; and the least levels were generally detected in muscle, except Cu. Significantly positive correlations of metal concentrations were detected among elements. And in feathers, all of elements were very significantly positive correlated (at the0.01level), but not for Pb with Zn. And for Pb and Zn, there were no significantly positive correlations between any tissues, even very significantly negative correlation in liver (p=0.007).Similar to Tree Sparrow, metal concentrations of hairs from the three study sites, showed the order:DMA> UDJ> PMR, and for most elements there were very significant difference among the three sites. Age pattern were different for6elements:for Cd, Pb, Cr and Mn, the order was middle age> youth> older; for Cu and Zn, the order was youth> middle-aged> older. And the age differences were most very significant. For Cd and Pb, the levels were highest in spring and autumn, then in summer, and lowest in winter; for Cr, Mn, Cu and Zn, the lowest were most in summer. Most elements were significantly or very significantly positive correlated between hairs and feathers, so they could be substitute for each other. Summer was the perfect season for monitoring. The middle-aged persons of30-59years old were most suitable age group, whose hairs could be taken as indicators.According to the above results, the pollution levels of DMA and UDJ were evaluated by Individual Pollution Exceeding Multiples and Cumulative Pollution Comprehensive Index. In DMA and UDJ, the Individual Pollution Exceeding Multiples of Cd were highest in Tree Sparrow, and those of Pb were highest in hairs, which showed that Cd and Pb were mainly pollution elements for Tree Sparrow and human in DMA and UDJ. For Tree Sparrow, the Cumulative Pollution Comprehensive Index of DMA and UDJ were all the highest in heart. For hairs, the Cumulative Pollution Comprehensive Index of DMA was highest in the older, and lowest in the youth; but that of UDJ was highest in the youth. Both the Individual Pollution Exceeding Multiples and Cumulative Pollution Comprehensive Index of DMA were higher than UDJ, not only for Tree Sparrow, but also for hairs. Comparing with hairs, the reason why we took Tree Sparrows as indicator lay in the advantages of its narrow active sphere, of the direct contact between their feathers and the environment and so forth. So Tree Sparrow feathers were more suitable to be regarded as indicator.To enhance daily monitoring played a key role of preventing and remedying heavy metal pollution. Tree Sparrow feathers were perfect environment indicators, which were suggested to be collected and monitored around areas near the mining pit or coal gangue in the summer. And it was suggested integrate the water resources conservation and utilization, vegetation recovery and reconstruction, as well as the engineering of soil and water conservation to achieve a comprehensive ecological restoration and governance of mining wasteland.