Arctic cleansing diet: Sex-specific variation in the rapid elimination of contaminants by the world's champion migrant, the Arctic tern

Contamination of Arctic marine environments continues to be a concern for wildlife managers. Because the Arctic is a sink for the long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), many studies have detected high concentrations of POPs in various Arctic birds. In this study from high Arct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science of The Total Environment
Main Authors: Mallory, M.L. (Mark L.), Anderson, C.M. (Christine M.), Braune, B.M. (Birgit M.), Pratte, I. (Isabeau), Provencher, J.F. (Jennifer F.)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Arctic
Breeding
Migration
Seabird
Sterna paradisaea
Antarctic
Canada
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Arctic birds
Arctic tern
Online Access:https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/24749
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.505
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Summary:Contamination of Arctic marine environments continues to be a concern for wildlife managers. Because the Arctic is a sink for the long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), many studies have detected high concentrations of POPs in various Arctic birds. In this study from high Arctic Canada, we show that male Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea), which migrate from the Antarctic to the Arctic annually to breed, decline in concentrations of many hepatic POPs through the breeding season. This suggests that local Arctic food webs are less contaminated than regions where terns fed during or migration, despite that the terns appear to feed at a higher trophic level near their colony.

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