(210)Polonium and (210)lead content of marine birds from Southeastern Brazil

摘要

In this study, we report the Po-210 and Pb-210 concentrations of bone, muscle and liver samples that were obtained from twelve different marine bird species stranded on beaches in the central north region of Rio de Janeiro State. Both radionuclides were highly concentrated in the liver samples; however, the lowest mean Po-210/Pb-210 activity ratio (1.3) was observed in bones compared with liver and muscle (16.8 and 13.8, respectively). Among the species that were studied, Fregata magnificens, with a diet based exclusively on fish, had the lowest Pb-210 and Po-210 concentrations and the lowest Po-210/Pb-210 activity ratio. The Po-210 concentrations in Puffinus spp. liver samples followed a log-normal distribution, with a geometric mean of 300 Bq kg(wet weight)(-1). Only two references pertaining to Po-210 in marine birds were found in a Web of Science search of the literature, and each study reported a different concentration value. The values determined in this experiment are consistent with those in one of the previous studies, which also included one of the species studied in this work. No values for Pb-210 in marine birds have been published previously. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.