Renedo, Marina, Amouroux, David, Duval, Bastien, Carravieri, Alice, Tessier, Emmanuel, Barre, Julien, Berail, Sylvain, Pedrero, Zoyne, Cherel, Yves and Bustamante, Paco
(2018)
Seabird Tissues As Efficient Biomonitoring Tools for Hg Isotopic Investigations: Implications of Using Blood and Feathers from Chicks and Adults.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 52 (7).
pp. 4227-4234.
Abstract
Blood and feathers are the two most targeted avian tissues for environmental biomonitoring studies, with mercury (Hg) concentration in blood and body feathers reflecting short and long-term Hg exposure, respectively. In this work, we investigated how Hg isotopic composition (e.g., δ<sup>202</sup>Hg and Δ<sup>199</sup>Hg) of blood and feathers from either seabird chicks (skuas, n = 40) or adults (penguins, n = 62) can accurately provide information on exposure to Hg in marine ecosystems. Our results indicate a strong correlation between blood and feather Hg isotopic values for skua chicks, with similar δ<sup>202</sup>Hg and Δ<sup>199</sup>Hg values in the two tissues (mean difference: -0.01 ± 0.25 ‰ and -0.05 ± 0.12 ‰, respectively). Since blood and body feathers of chicks integrate the same temporal window of Hg exposure, this suggests that δ<sup>202</sup>Hg and Δ<sup>199</sup>Hg values can be directly compared without any correction factors within and between avian groups. Conversely, penguin adults show higher δ<sup>202</sup>Hg and Δ<sup>199</sup>Hg values in feathers than in blood (mean differences: 0.28 ± 0.19‰ and 0.25 ± 0.13‰), most likely due to tissue-specific Hg temporal integration. Since feathers integrate long-term (i.e., the intermoult period) Hg accumulation, whereas blood reflects short-term (i.e., seasonal) Hg exposure in adult birds, the two tissues provide complementary information on trophic ecology at different time scales.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Feathers, Animals, Mercury, Ecosystem, Food Chain, Environmental Monitoring |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
Date Deposited: | 13 Feb 2020 09:08 |
Last Modified: | 19 Jan 2023 00:03 |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.est.8b00422 |
Open Access URL: | https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02336383/file... |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3074805 |