Lead (Pb) is ubiquitous in urban environments, and it is a risk factor for wildlife. But wildlife are particularly at risk for exposure near smelters in urban areas where higher than safe Pb levels in the soil have the potential to transfer to the food chain. Therefore, we investigated whether wildlife are at risk of Pb exposure and differences in Pb bioaccumulation in trophic levels at a Superfund site in an urban area of Colorado. We sampled soil, vegetation, arthropods, and birds at four sites: two contaminated sites (one at the Superfund site and one near the Superfund site) and two reference sites with low predicted Pb contamination. We found significantly higher Pb levels in the soil at the contaminated Slag pile at the Superfund site, compared to the other sites. At the Slag pile, Pb levels were the highest in vegetation and both arthropods and birds accumulated Pb. However, Pb did not increase between trophic levels in the terrestrial food web at the site. We concluded that smelter operations at the Superfund site resulted in significantly higher levels of Pb in the soil and sublethal accumulation in all taxa studied. This research can be used to mitigate the risks to vulnerable wildlife populations exposed to Pb at the Superfund site. Further examination of Pb toxicity in vulnerable taxa is critical to conserving wild populations and ecosystems near contamination zones.

铅 (Pb) 在城市环境中无处不在，是野生动物的危险因素。但野生动物尤其面临城市地区冶炼厂附近的暴露风险，因为土壤中高于安全水平的铅有可能转移到食物链中。因此，我们调查了野生动物是否面临铅暴露的风险以及科罗拉多州市区超级基金地点营养水平中铅生物富集的差异。我们在四个地点对土壤、植被、节肢动物和鸟类进行了采样：两个污染地点（一个位于超级基金地点，一个位于超级基金地点附近）和两个预测铅污染较低的参考地点。我们发现超级基金场地受污染矿渣堆的土壤中铅含量明显高于其他场地。在矿渣堆中，植被中的铅含量最高，节肢动物和鸟类都积累了铅。然而，该地点陆地食物网的营养级之间的铅并未增加。我们得出的结论是，超级基金所在地的冶炼厂运营导致土壤中的铅含量显着升高，并且在所有研究的类群中都出现了亚致死的积累。这项研究可用于减轻超级基金地点暴露于铅的脆弱野生动物种群的风险。进一步检查脆弱类群中的铅毒性对于保护污染区附近的野生种群和生态系统至关重要。