Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
Exposure to pollutants is a potentially crucial but overlooked driver of population declines in shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. We combined knowledge of moult strategy and life history with a standardised sampling protocol to assess mercury (Hg) contamination in 984 individuals...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38755288 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11098816/ |
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ftpubmed:38755288 2024-09-30T14:31:05+00:00 Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Ma, Yanju Choi, Chi-Yeung Shang, Lihai Klaassen, Marcel Ma, Zhijun Chang, Qing Jaspers, Veerle L B Bai, Qingquan He, Tao Leung, Katherine K-S Hassell, Chris J Jessop, Roz Gibson, Luke 2024 May 16 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38755288 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11098816/ eng eng Nature Publishing Group https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38755288 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11098816/ © 2024. The Author(s). Commun Biol ISSN:2399-3642 Volume:7 Issue:1 Journal Article 2024 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x 2024-09-01T16:02:00Z Exposure to pollutants is a potentially crucial but overlooked driver of population declines in shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. We combined knowledge of moult strategy and life history with a standardised sampling protocol to assess mercury (Hg) contamination in 984 individuals across 33 migratory shorebird species on an intercontinental scale. Over one-third of the samples exceeded toxicity benchmarks. Feather Hg was best explained by moulting region, while habitat preference (coastal obligate vs. non-coastal obligate), the proportion of invertebrates in the diet and foraging stratum (foraging mostly on the surface vs. at depth) also contributed, but were less pronounced. Feather Hg was substantially higher in South China (Mai Po and Leizhou), Australia and the Yellow Sea than in temperate and Arctic breeding ranges. Non-coastal obligate species (Tringa genus) frequently encountered in freshwater habitats were at the highest risk. It is important to continue and expand biomonitoring research to assess how other pollutants might impact shorebirds. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Communications Biology 7 1 |
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English |
description |
Exposure to pollutants is a potentially crucial but overlooked driver of population declines in shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. We combined knowledge of moult strategy and life history with a standardised sampling protocol to assess mercury (Hg) contamination in 984 individuals across 33 migratory shorebird species on an intercontinental scale. Over one-third of the samples exceeded toxicity benchmarks. Feather Hg was best explained by moulting region, while habitat preference (coastal obligate vs. non-coastal obligate), the proportion of invertebrates in the diet and foraging stratum (foraging mostly on the surface vs. at depth) also contributed, but were less pronounced. Feather Hg was substantially higher in South China (Mai Po and Leizhou), Australia and the Yellow Sea than in temperate and Arctic breeding ranges. Non-coastal obligate species (Tringa genus) frequently encountered in freshwater habitats were at the highest risk. It is important to continue and expand biomonitoring research to assess how other pollutants might impact shorebirds. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ma, Yanju Choi, Chi-Yeung Shang, Lihai Klaassen, Marcel Ma, Zhijun Chang, Qing Jaspers, Veerle L B Bai, Qingquan He, Tao Leung, Katherine K-S Hassell, Chris J Jessop, Roz Gibson, Luke |
spellingShingle |
Ma, Yanju Choi, Chi-Yeung Shang, Lihai Klaassen, Marcel Ma, Zhijun Chang, Qing Jaspers, Veerle L B Bai, Qingquan He, Tao Leung, Katherine K-S Hassell, Chris J Jessop, Roz Gibson, Luke Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. |
author_facet |
Ma, Yanju Choi, Chi-Yeung Shang, Lihai Klaassen, Marcel Ma, Zhijun Chang, Qing Jaspers, Veerle L B Bai, Qingquan He, Tao Leung, Katherine K-S Hassell, Chris J Jessop, Roz Gibson, Luke |
author_sort |
Ma, Yanju |
title |
Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. |
title_short |
Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. |
title_full |
Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. |
title_fullStr |
Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. |
title_sort |
mercury contamination is an invisible threat to declining migratory shorebirds along the east asian-australasian flyway. |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38755288 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11098816/ |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Commun Biol ISSN:2399-3642 Volume:7 Issue:1 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38755288 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11098816/ |
op_rights |
© 2024. The Author(s). |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06254-x |
container_title |
Communications Biology |
container_volume |
7 |
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1 |
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1811635745202372608 |