Browsing by Author "Agyemang, Douglas"

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    Distribution of Total-Mercury in Different Tissues of Fish Eating Birds along the Volta Lake, Ghana.
    (2013-12-17) Agyemang, Douglas
    The distribution of Total mercury (THg) concentrations was determined in ten (10) different tissues of four different species of fish-eating birds from the Volta Lake, Ghana. The four species of fish-eating birds analysed in this study were Yellow billed kite (Milvus migrans parasitus), Squacco heron (Ardeola rolloides), Little egret (Egretta garzetta) and Grey heron (Ardea Cinerea). Elevated levels of total mercury were found in all the tissues studied and were found to increase with body weight/age of the birds. Correlation analysis showed a very high positive relationship between concentrations of total mercury found in the tissues and weight/age of the birds. Highest total mercury concentrations were found in the liver, kidney and feather tissues of all the birds and they appeared to be the most preferred organs for mercury accumulation in the birds analyzed in this study. The order of mercury accumulation in the tissues obtained was as follows: lungs < heart