comparison of mercury concentration in feather of turdus merula and turdus philomelos in khanikan forests

abstract studies have shown that birds due to being in the high trophic levels on the ecosystems, and also high sensitivity to toxic substances are a useful indicator for the evaluation of mercury pollution. the objective of the present study was to evaluate mercury level in the feathers of turdus philomelos and turdus merula in khanikan forests as an indicator of mercury contamination. to attain this aim, 37 samples belonging to two species were collected from khanikan forests, located in southern part of noushahr and chalous cities. feather samples were removed in the lab. level of mercury was determined by mercury analyzer ama 254. statistical analyses were performed using spss software. according to the results of this study,  mercury levels in feathers of turdus philomelos (0.98 µg/g) and turdus merula (0.94 µg/g) was too lower than standard limit (5 µg/g) , and also there was no significant difference between two species in terms of mercury level. these results showed that habitat of these species were not heavily polluted by mercury. according to biomagnification of mercury in trophic levels, can be concluded that because of seed eating habits of turdus philomelos and turdus merula , low levels of mercury accumulated in feathers of these species