Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota
Mercury (Hg) in Arctic biota is increasing in contrast with trends in the rest of the world. In top predators, tissue levels surpassed the established toxicity thresholds. New research has revealed how the Arctic Hg cycle has altered because of sea-surface temperature increase and sea-ice cover decl...
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ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/236035 2024-04-21T07:53:26+00:00 Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota Pinzone, Marianna Nordoy, Erling Desforges, Jean-Pierre Eulaers, Igor Dietz, Rune Das, Krishna FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège 2019-01-23 A5 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/236035 en eng https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330589024_Mercury_levels_in_top_predators_as_a_valuable_marker_of_environmental_state_and_potential_health_risk_to_Arctic_marine_biota https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/236035 info:hdl:2268/236035 restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Arctic Frontiers 2019, Tromso, Norway [NO], 21/01/2019 - 26/01/2019 Mercury thresholds Arctic Arctic biota Life sciences Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Sciences de l’environnement & écologie conference poster not in proceedings http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_18co info:eu-repo/semantics/conferencePoster 2019 ftorbi 2024-03-27T14:49:32Z Mercury (Hg) in Arctic biota is increasing in contrast with trends in the rest of the world. In top predators, tissue levels surpassed the established toxicity thresholds. New research has revealed how the Arctic Hg cycle has altered because of sea-surface temperature increase and sea-ice cover decline. True seals are Arctic top predators. As such, Hg level in their tissue may represent a valuable integrator for changes in Hg cycling in their food chain. Our objective was to assess how the health risk associated with Hg exposure has evolved in the last 20 years in response to environmental changes. We measured Total-Hg levels in liver of hooded seals Cystophora cristata (N = 10), harp seals Pagophilus groenlandicus (N = 13) and ringed seals Pusa hispida (N = 24) through Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (DMA-80 Milestone). We grouped seals in five toxicity risk classes and compared them to the results of Dietz et al. (2005), based upon effect threshold categories calculated for harp seals by Ronald et al. (1977). Overall, hooded seals presented the highest values, followed by ringed seals and harp seals (all p < 0.05). 100% of harp seals (all ages) were in the “no effect” category, as well as yearlings of hooded and harp seals. 22% of sub-adults and 45% of adult ringed seals belonged to the “low risk” category. Conversely, all hooded seals resulted at risk with 100% of sub-adults and 25% of adults in the “low risk” class, 25% of adults in the “high risk” class and 50% of adults in the “severe risk” class. Our classification resulted very different from the 2000s when only 20% of the hooded seals’ population was at “high risk” and 20% of ringed seals was at “low risk”. This shows that Arctic true seals are at increasing toxicity risk as a consequence of the undergoing environmental changes, with some species (hooded seal) being more affected than others (harp seal). The change in length of ice season may have determined a shift in prey diversity, modifying levels of Hg exposure to seals, while the decrease in ice ... Conference Object Arctic arctic marine biota Cystophora cristata Harp Seal hooded seal Pagophilus groenlandicus Pusa hispida Sea ice University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
op_collection_id |
ftorbi |
language |
English |
topic |
Mercury thresholds Arctic Arctic biota Life sciences Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Sciences de l’environnement & écologie |
spellingShingle |
Mercury thresholds Arctic Arctic biota Life sciences Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Sciences de l’environnement & écologie Pinzone, Marianna Nordoy, Erling Desforges, Jean-Pierre Eulaers, Igor Dietz, Rune Das, Krishna Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota |
topic_facet |
Mercury thresholds Arctic Arctic biota Life sciences Environmental sciences & ecology Sciences du vivant Sciences de l’environnement & écologie |
description |
Mercury (Hg) in Arctic biota is increasing in contrast with trends in the rest of the world. In top predators, tissue levels surpassed the established toxicity thresholds. New research has revealed how the Arctic Hg cycle has altered because of sea-surface temperature increase and sea-ice cover decline. True seals are Arctic top predators. As such, Hg level in their tissue may represent a valuable integrator for changes in Hg cycling in their food chain. Our objective was to assess how the health risk associated with Hg exposure has evolved in the last 20 years in response to environmental changes. We measured Total-Hg levels in liver of hooded seals Cystophora cristata (N = 10), harp seals Pagophilus groenlandicus (N = 13) and ringed seals Pusa hispida (N = 24) through Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (DMA-80 Milestone). We grouped seals in five toxicity risk classes and compared them to the results of Dietz et al. (2005), based upon effect threshold categories calculated for harp seals by Ronald et al. (1977). Overall, hooded seals presented the highest values, followed by ringed seals and harp seals (all p < 0.05). 100% of harp seals (all ages) were in the “no effect” category, as well as yearlings of hooded and harp seals. 22% of sub-adults and 45% of adult ringed seals belonged to the “low risk” category. Conversely, all hooded seals resulted at risk with 100% of sub-adults and 25% of adults in the “low risk” class, 25% of adults in the “high risk” class and 50% of adults in the “severe risk” class. Our classification resulted very different from the 2000s when only 20% of the hooded seals’ population was at “high risk” and 20% of ringed seals was at “low risk”. This shows that Arctic true seals are at increasing toxicity risk as a consequence of the undergoing environmental changes, with some species (hooded seal) being more affected than others (harp seal). The change in length of ice season may have determined a shift in prey diversity, modifying levels of Hg exposure to seals, while the decrease in ice ... |
author2 |
FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Pinzone, Marianna Nordoy, Erling Desforges, Jean-Pierre Eulaers, Igor Dietz, Rune Das, Krishna |
author_facet |
Pinzone, Marianna Nordoy, Erling Desforges, Jean-Pierre Eulaers, Igor Dietz, Rune Das, Krishna |
author_sort |
Pinzone, Marianna |
title |
Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota |
title_short |
Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota |
title_full |
Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota |
title_fullStr |
Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to Arctic marine biota |
title_sort |
mercury levels in top predators as a valuable marker of environmental state and potential health risk to arctic marine biota |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/236035 |
genre |
Arctic arctic marine biota Cystophora cristata Harp Seal hooded seal Pagophilus groenlandicus Pusa hispida Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic arctic marine biota Cystophora cristata Harp Seal hooded seal Pagophilus groenlandicus Pusa hispida Sea ice |
op_source |
Arctic Frontiers 2019, Tromso, Norway [NO], 21/01/2019 - 26/01/2019 |
op_relation |
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330589024_Mercury_levels_in_top_predators_as_a_valuable_marker_of_environmental_state_and_potential_health_risk_to_Arctic_marine_biota https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/236035 info:hdl:2268/236035 |
op_rights |
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
_version_ |
1796936580529651712 |