Heavy metals, oxidative stress and immune function in common moorhens from natural and artificial wetlands

Abstract

The use of the effluent of wastewater treatment plants for the maintenance of wetlands is becoming a common practice in semiarid regions. We suggest that this type of ecosystem could act as an ecological trap, because it concentrates pathogenic organisms and a myriad of chemical pollutants coming from urban and industrial sources. Heavy metals have been reported as a cause of lethal poisoning and diverse sublethal effects by the impairment of biochemical processes.