Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia
Abstract Many bodies of water around the world are contaminated with mercury from historic industrial and mining activities or ongoing atmospheric deposition, resulting in numerous fish consumption advisories. However, concerns about mercury have only rarely led to consumption advisories on waterfow...
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crwiley:10.1002/jwmg.430 2024-06-02T08:04:35+00:00 Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia Cristol, Daniel A. Savoy, Lucas Evers, David C. Perkins, Christopher Taylor, Robert Varian‐Ramos, Claire W. 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.430 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjwmg.430 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/jwmg.430/fullpdf en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor The Journal of Wildlife Management volume 76, issue 8, page 1617-1624 ISSN 0022-541X 1937-2817 journal-article 2012 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.430 2024-05-03T12:03:50Z Abstract Many bodies of water around the world are contaminated with mercury from historic industrial and mining activities or ongoing atmospheric deposition, resulting in numerous fish consumption advisories. However, concerns about mercury have only rarely led to consumption advisories on waterfowl. In contrast with fish, waterfowl frequently disperse long distances to new watersheds, so hunters and wildlife managers do not know whether waterfowl at a pristine site have spent time at a contaminated site elsewhere. We sampled tissue mercury concentrations of mallards ( Anas platyrhynchos ), wood ducks ( Aix sponsa ), and Canada geese ( Branta canadensis ) at a site contaminated with mercury, during the breeding and hunting seasons. We found that many mallards had bioaccumulated mercury to levels that had the potential to produce reproductive effects and exceeded consumption advisories set for fish by regulatory agencies, whereas this was true for only a few wood ducks and Canada geese. We also documented that mercury‐exposed waterfowl from this contaminated site were harvested by hunters as far as 1,054 km away. Our results suggest the need for more proactive sampling of waterfowl for mercury, and likely other bioaccumulating contaminants, in order to allow hunters to make more informed choices about consumption of their harvest. © 2012 The Wildlife Society. Article in Journal/Newspaper Branta canadensis Wiley Online Library Canada The Journal of Wildlife Management 76 8 1617 1624 |
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description |
Abstract Many bodies of water around the world are contaminated with mercury from historic industrial and mining activities or ongoing atmospheric deposition, resulting in numerous fish consumption advisories. However, concerns about mercury have only rarely led to consumption advisories on waterfowl. In contrast with fish, waterfowl frequently disperse long distances to new watersheds, so hunters and wildlife managers do not know whether waterfowl at a pristine site have spent time at a contaminated site elsewhere. We sampled tissue mercury concentrations of mallards ( Anas platyrhynchos ), wood ducks ( Aix sponsa ), and Canada geese ( Branta canadensis ) at a site contaminated with mercury, during the breeding and hunting seasons. We found that many mallards had bioaccumulated mercury to levels that had the potential to produce reproductive effects and exceeded consumption advisories set for fish by regulatory agencies, whereas this was true for only a few wood ducks and Canada geese. We also documented that mercury‐exposed waterfowl from this contaminated site were harvested by hunters as far as 1,054 km away. Our results suggest the need for more proactive sampling of waterfowl for mercury, and likely other bioaccumulating contaminants, in order to allow hunters to make more informed choices about consumption of their harvest. © 2012 The Wildlife Society. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cristol, Daniel A. Savoy, Lucas Evers, David C. Perkins, Christopher Taylor, Robert Varian‐Ramos, Claire W. |
spellingShingle |
Cristol, Daniel A. Savoy, Lucas Evers, David C. Perkins, Christopher Taylor, Robert Varian‐Ramos, Claire W. Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia |
author_facet |
Cristol, Daniel A. Savoy, Lucas Evers, David C. Perkins, Christopher Taylor, Robert Varian‐Ramos, Claire W. |
author_sort |
Cristol, Daniel A. |
title |
Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia |
title_short |
Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia |
title_full |
Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia |
title_fullStr |
Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in Virginia |
title_sort |
mercury in waterfowl from a contaminated river in virginia |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.430 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjwmg.430 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/jwmg.430/fullpdf |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Branta canadensis |
genre_facet |
Branta canadensis |
op_source |
The Journal of Wildlife Management volume 76, issue 8, page 1617-1624 ISSN 0022-541X 1937-2817 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.430 |
container_title |
The Journal of Wildlife Management |
container_volume |
76 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
1617 |
op_container_end_page |
1624 |
_version_ |
1800749214901207040 |