Relationships between soil and badger elemental concentrations across a heterogeneously contaminated landscape

Sartorius, A; Cahoon, M; Corbetta, D; Grau-Roma, L; Johnson, MF; Barron, ES; Smallman-Raynor, M; Swift, BMC; Yon, L; Young, S; Bennett, M

Abstract

Understanding the links between environmental and wildlife elemental concentrations is key to help assess ecosystem functions and the potential effects of legacy pollutants. In this study, livers from 448 European badgers (Meles meles) collected across the English Midlands were used to investigate the relationship between elemental concentrations in topsoils and wildlife. Mean soil sample concentrations within 2 km of each badger, determined using data from the British Geological Survey's 'Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment', were compared to badger liver elemen-tal concentrations, focusing primarily on Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, K, Mn, Pb, Se, Zn. Generally, the badgers appeared to have elemental concentrations comparable with those published for other related animals, though Cu concentrations tended to be lower than expected. While there was no relationship between soil and badger liver concentrations for most bi-ologically essential elements, biologically non-essential elements, specifically Pb, Cd, As, and Ag, were positively cor-related between soil and badger livers. Lead and Cd, the elements with the strongest relationships between soils and badger livers, were primarily elevated in badgers collected in Derbyshire, a county with a millennia-long history of Pb mining and significant Pb and Cd soil pollution. Cadmium concentrations in badgers were also, on average, almost nine times higher than the local soil concentrations, likely due to Cd biomagnification in earthworms, a dietary staple

Citation

Sartorius, A., Cahoon, M., Corbetta, D., Grau-Roma, L., Johnson, M., Barron, E., …Bennett, M. (2023). Relationships between soil and badger elemental concentrations across a heterogeneously contaminated landscape. Science of the Total Environment, 869, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161684

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jan 20, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Aug 25, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 25, 2023
• Print ISSN: 0048-9697
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 869
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161684
• Keywords: Non -essential element liver and soil con; Environmental elemental concentrations; Badgers; Legacy pollutants; Human -modi fied environments; FALSE DISCOVERY RATE; MELES-MELES L.; EUROPEAN BADGER; TRACE-METALS; CLETHRIONOMYS-GLAREOLUS; SELENIUM ACCUMULATI