Важкі метали в організмі кажанів як складова їх індикаційного потенціалу

Modern climate change and environmental degradation have become planetary. The impact of these factors on complex biological systems must be monitored using bioindicator taxa, including bats. Bioindicative potential of bats is assessed, a prerequisite of which are their widespread distribution in the world, high specialization, availability of study of population trends, and effects of short- and long-term impacts. An effective use of this potential can be fulfilled through the formation of a global monitoring network of bat populations. These populations are declining due to the negative impact of a number of factors, including heavy metals in the world. The content of heavy metals (Pb, Cr, Zn and Cu) is determined and the patterns of their quantitative representation in the wool of five bat species in nature conservation and urban areas of the west of Ukraine are characterized. These species are as follows: Eptesicus serotinus (Schreber, 1774), Myotis daubentonii (Kuhl, 18170), Plecotus auritus (Linnaeus, 1758), Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl, 1819) and Pipistrellus nathusii (Keyserling et Blasius, 1839). The results of study of all bat species observed have shown the highest concentrations for zinc, the lowest – for lead and copper. The concentration of lead in the wool of M. daubentonii and P. nathusii was significantly lower than in other bat bodied indicating the remoteness of the feed and biotopic preferences of these species from anthropogenic influence. The study has revealed that the concentrations of metals in bat wool on the territory of Shatsky National Park and in Lviv show a certain hierarchical sequence – Zn > Cu > Pb or Zn > Pb > Cu, depending on the ecological and biological features of the species. The values of Cr were found to be the most variable for all bats and varied widely. The metal content was determined in the muscles of Ept serotinus, which died in an accident in Lviv and Rivne in 2014. The content of chromium and zinc in muscle was much lower compared to the content of these metals in the bats' wool. The work evaluates the importance of the use of bats as biological indicators of heavy metal contamination and points the expediency of using in bat species environmental monitoring the method of determining the content of heavy metals in wool as non-invasive and highly informative.