Mercury exposure in a large subantarctic avian community

• Published in: Environmental Pollution
• Main Authors: Carravieri, Alice, Cherel, Yves, Blévin, Pierre, Brault-Favrou, Maud, Chastel, Olivier, Bustamante, Paco
• Other Authors: Centre d'études biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés - UMRi 7266 (LIENSs), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Feeding ecology; Kerguelen; Procellariiformes; seabirds; [SDV.TOX.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Toxicology/Ecotoxicology; Kerguelen Islands; Indian
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00978913; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00978913/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00978913/file/Carravieri_et_al_2014_ENPO.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2014.03.017

International audience Mercury (Hg) contamination poses potential threats to ecosystems worldwide. In order to study Hg bioavailability in the poorly documented southern Indian Ocean, Hg exposure was investigated in the large avian community of Kerguelen Islands. Adults of 27 species (480 individuals) showed a wide range of feather Hg concentrations, from 0.4 ± 0.1 to 16.6 ± 3.8 µg g-1 dry weight in Wilson's storm petrels and wandering albatrosses, respectively. Hg concentrations increased roughly in the order crustacean- < fish- ≤ squid- ≤ carrion-consumers, confirming that diet, rather than taxonomy, is an important driver of avian Hg exposure. Adults presented higher Hg concentrations than chicks, due to a longer duration of exposure, with the only exception being the subantarctic skua, likely because of feeding habits' differences of the two age-classes in this species. High Hg concentrations were reported for three species of the poorly known gadfly petrels, which merit further investigation.