BREEDING birds can bounce back quickly when industry reduces heavy metal
pollution, Finnish researchers have discovered.
Tapio Eeva and Esa Lehikoinen of the University of Turku studied pied
flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) and great tits (Parus major)
around a copper smelter at Harjavalta in southwest Finland. Heavy metal
pollution from the plant had reduced the breeding success of great tits.
Ten years ago, the plant began to reduce its emissions. By 1997, the nests
around the plant contained an average of one chick more than they had earlier in
the decade (Nature, vol 403, p 852). The researchers think the birds…
