Monitoring of heavy metal impacts by small mammals

Abstract

Environment is continuously polluted with various environmental chemicals, released by anthropogenic activities. Therefore, many species and human communities are exposed to a different contaminant such as heavy metals which lead to adverse health effects in both human and other animals. Over the last decades the production of heavy metals in the world areas substantially increased and the subsequent release of these metals into the environment is of some concern. Acute and chronic effects of heavy metals have been reported on different ecosystems and organisms. Protection of human health and the environment from different pollutants such as heavy metals will be resulted by performing environmental monitoring. Bio-indicator species can provide useful information to monitor the quality of the environment, in particular polluted environment. The distributions of heavy metals in the polluted areas are well reflected in the body of small mammals living in the contaminated areas. Small mammals like rodents have interesting features make them popular as a bio-indicator species in different studies. Therefore, small mammals are suggested to apply in monitoring of heavy metals due to large population, wide distribution, and similarity to human in terms of habitat and internal organs, short life spans, and many other characteristics.