Fertilizer application in rural cropland drives cadmium enrichment in bats dwelling in an urban area

Liu, Sha; Yu, Wenhua; Li, Feng; Zhao, Jing; Yin, Ru-Yi; Zhou, Zhao-Min; Pan, Bo

Fertilizer application in rural cropland drives cadmium enrichment in bats dwelling in an urban area

2018

The transfer of pollutants from chemical fertilizers through food webs within cropland is well documented; however, its impacts on the wild animals that forage on croplands but roost in other locations remain poorly understood. The potential for this cross-ecosystem ‘spillover’ of pollutants is greatest for bats, some of which exploit urban settlements as roosting niches but must travel long distances to reach croplands as foraging niches. Here, we used hairs from a colony of insectivorous bats, Chinese Noctule (Nyctalus plancyi), from an urban area in Southwest China to assess whether exposure to heavy metals/metalloids by the bats varied from 1975 to 2016. Historical changes occurred in hair cadmium (Cd) concentrations in adult females, which was exclusively explained by the regional fertilizer application intensity (FAI), even considering the potential impacts of Cd emissions in urban areas, as indicated by camphor trees (Cinnamomum camphora) near the bats' roosting niche, and the potential impacts of Cd in industrial wastewater, as documented in authorized databases. Therefore, the data from this bat colony, as urban dwellers, indicates Cd accumulation and cross-ecosystem transfer from rural croplands to an urban area.

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