Heavy Metal Concentrations in Sea Turtles and Their Prey in the Northwest Atlantic ...

• Main Author: Chan, Yi Wynn
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: Purdue University Graduate School 2024
• Subjects: Marine and estuarine ecology incl. marine ichthyology; Toxicology incl. clinical toxicology; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25394/pgs.25655430; https://hammer.purdue.edu/articles/thesis/_b_Heavy_Metal_Concentrations_in_Sea_Turtles_and_b_b_Their_Prey_in_the_Northwest_Atlantic_b_/25655430

The Northwest Atlantic Ocean, which surrounds the US eastern coastline, is an area rich in marine life. The US eastern coastline is also highly urbanized, resulting in a lot of pollutants (like heavy metals) entering the marine environment. This is of concern for long-lived marine species like sea turtles. Since sea turtles are long-lived and highly migratory, their tissues can often incorporate these pollutants through environmental and dietary exposure. I collected tissue samples from 5 different sea turtle populations in the Northwest Atlantic and analyzed them for concentrations of silver (Ag), aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn) using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The first chapter looks at skin (reflects exposure ~1 year ago) and scute (reflects exposure from 4-6 years ago) samples collected during necropsies of juvenile green ( Chelonia mydas ) (n=8), Kemp’s ...