Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore
Limited information exists on mercury concentrations and environmental drivers of mercury bioaccumulation in high latitude terrestrial carnivores. Spatial patterns of mercury concentrations in wolverine ( Gulo gulo , n = 419) were assessed across a 1,600,000 km 2 study area in relation to landscape,...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 |
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 2024-09-15T17:54:09+00:00 Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore Peraza, Inés Chételat, John Richardson, Murray Jung, Thomas S. Awan, Malik Baryluk, Steve Dastoor, Ashu Harrower, William Kukka, Piia M. McClelland, Christine Mowat, Garth Pelletier, Nicolas Rodford, Christine Ryjkov, Andrei Qureshi, Asif Environment and Climate Change Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 5, page e0285826 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2023 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 2024-08-06T04:08:18Z Limited information exists on mercury concentrations and environmental drivers of mercury bioaccumulation in high latitude terrestrial carnivores. Spatial patterns of mercury concentrations in wolverine ( Gulo gulo , n = 419) were assessed across a 1,600,000 km 2 study area in relation to landscape, climate, diet and biological factors in Arctic and boreal biomes of western Canada. Hydrogen stable isotope ratios were measured in wolverine hair from a subset of 80 animals to assess the spatial scale for characterizing environmental conditions of their habitat. Habitat characteristics were determined using GIS methods and raster datasets at two scales, the collection location point and a 150 km radius buffer, which was selected based on results of a correlation analysis between hydrogen stable isotopes in precipitation and wolverine hair. Total mercury concentrations in wolverine muscle ranged >2 orders of magnitude from 0.01 to 5.72 μg/g dry weight and varied geographically, with the highest concentrations in the Northwest Territories followed by Nunavut and Yukon. Regression models at both spatial scales indicated diet (based on nitrogen stable isotope ratios) was the strongest explanatory variable of mercury concentrations in wolverine, with smaller though statistically significant contributions from landscape variables (soil organic carbon, percent cover of wet area, percent cover of perennial snow-ice) and distance to the Arctic Ocean coast. The carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of wolverine muscle suggested greater mercury bioaccumulation could be associated with feeding on marine biota in coastal habitats. Landscape variables identified in the modelling may reflect habitat conditions which support enhanced methylmercury transfer to terrestrial biota. Spatially-explicit estimates of wet atmospheric deposition were positively correlated with wolverine mercury concentrations but this variable was not selected in the final regression models. These landscape patterns provide a basis for further ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Ocean Gulo gulo Northwest Territories Nunavut Yukon PLOS PLOS ONE 18 5 e0285826 |
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Open Polar |
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PLOS |
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crplos |
language |
English |
description |
Limited information exists on mercury concentrations and environmental drivers of mercury bioaccumulation in high latitude terrestrial carnivores. Spatial patterns of mercury concentrations in wolverine ( Gulo gulo , n = 419) were assessed across a 1,600,000 km 2 study area in relation to landscape, climate, diet and biological factors in Arctic and boreal biomes of western Canada. Hydrogen stable isotope ratios were measured in wolverine hair from a subset of 80 animals to assess the spatial scale for characterizing environmental conditions of their habitat. Habitat characteristics were determined using GIS methods and raster datasets at two scales, the collection location point and a 150 km radius buffer, which was selected based on results of a correlation analysis between hydrogen stable isotopes in precipitation and wolverine hair. Total mercury concentrations in wolverine muscle ranged >2 orders of magnitude from 0.01 to 5.72 μg/g dry weight and varied geographically, with the highest concentrations in the Northwest Territories followed by Nunavut and Yukon. Regression models at both spatial scales indicated diet (based on nitrogen stable isotope ratios) was the strongest explanatory variable of mercury concentrations in wolverine, with smaller though statistically significant contributions from landscape variables (soil organic carbon, percent cover of wet area, percent cover of perennial snow-ice) and distance to the Arctic Ocean coast. The carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of wolverine muscle suggested greater mercury bioaccumulation could be associated with feeding on marine biota in coastal habitats. Landscape variables identified in the modelling may reflect habitat conditions which support enhanced methylmercury transfer to terrestrial biota. Spatially-explicit estimates of wet atmospheric deposition were positively correlated with wolverine mercury concentrations but this variable was not selected in the final regression models. These landscape patterns provide a basis for further ... |
author2 |
Qureshi, Asif Environment and Climate Change Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Peraza, Inés Chételat, John Richardson, Murray Jung, Thomas S. Awan, Malik Baryluk, Steve Dastoor, Ashu Harrower, William Kukka, Piia M. McClelland, Christine Mowat, Garth Pelletier, Nicolas Rodford, Christine Ryjkov, Andrei |
spellingShingle |
Peraza, Inés Chételat, John Richardson, Murray Jung, Thomas S. Awan, Malik Baryluk, Steve Dastoor, Ashu Harrower, William Kukka, Piia M. McClelland, Christine Mowat, Garth Pelletier, Nicolas Rodford, Christine Ryjkov, Andrei Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
author_facet |
Peraza, Inés Chételat, John Richardson, Murray Jung, Thomas S. Awan, Malik Baryluk, Steve Dastoor, Ashu Harrower, William Kukka, Piia M. McClelland, Christine Mowat, Garth Pelletier, Nicolas Rodford, Christine Ryjkov, Andrei |
author_sort |
Peraza, Inés |
title |
Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
title_short |
Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
title_full |
Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
title_fullStr |
Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
title_sort |
diet and landscape characteristics drive spatial patterns of mercury accumulation in a high-latitude terrestrial carnivore |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 |
genre |
Arctic Ocean Gulo gulo Northwest Territories Nunavut Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ocean Gulo gulo Northwest Territories Nunavut Yukon |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 5, page e0285826 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285826 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e0285826 |
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1810430366669864960 |