An assessment of mercury and its dietary drivers in fur of Arctic wolves from Greenland and High Arctic Canada

Mercury has become a ubiquitous hazardous element even ending up in pristine areas such as the Arctic, where it biomagnifies and leaves especially top predators vulnerable to potential health effects. Here we investigate total mercury (THg) concentrations and dietary proxies for trophic position and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science of The Total Environment
Main Authors: Treu, Gabriele, Sinding, Mikkel Holger S., Czirják, Gábor Á, Dietz, Rune, Gräff, Thomas, Krone, Oliver, Marquard-Petersen, Ulf, Mikkelsen, Johan Brus, Schulz, Ralf, Sonne, Christian, Søndergaard, Jens, Sun, Jiachen, Zubrod, Jochen, Eulaers, Igor
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Dietary ecology
Museum collection
Stable isotope
Top predator
risk assessment
Arctic
Baffin Bay
Canada
Foxe Basin
Greenland
Baffin
East Greenland
Online Access:https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/an-assessment-of-mercury-and-its-dietary-drivers-in-fur-of-arctic-wolves-from-greenland-and-high-arctic-canada(15930a9f-3e62-4bbe-bfa3-7275f9d676bd).html
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156171
https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/309280976/1_s2.0_S0048969722032685_main.pdf
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Summary:Mercury has become a ubiquitous hazardous element even ending up in pristine areas such as the Arctic, where it biomagnifies and leaves especially top predators vulnerable to potential health effects. Here we investigate total mercury (THg) concentrations and dietary proxies for trophic position and habitat foraging (δ 15 N and δ 13 C, respectively) in fur of 30 Arctic wolves collected during 1869–1998 in the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland. Fur THg concentrations (mean ± SD) of 1.46 ± 1.39 μg g −1 dry weight are within the range of earlier reported values for other Arctic terrestrial species. Based on putative thresholds for Hg-mediated toxic health effects, the studied Arctic wolves have most likely not been at compromised health. Dietary proxies show high dietary plasticity among Arctic wolves deriving nutrition from both marine and terrestrial food sources at various trophic positions. Variability in THg concentrations seem to be related to the wolves' trophic position rather than to different carbon sources or regional differences (East Greenland, the Foxe Basin and Baffin Bay area, respectively). Although the present study remains limited due to the scarce, yet unique historic study material and small sample size, it provides novel information on temporal and spatial variation in Hg pollution of remote Arctic species.

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