High within-individual variation in total mercury concentration in seabird feathers

To our knowledge, no rigorous assessment of the variation in mercury concentrations within individual seabirds has been made using multiple body feathers. We analyzed five feathers from individual Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan), common terns (Sterna hirundo L.), and Leach's storm-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Main Authors: Bond, Alexander L., Diamond, Antony W.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2008
Subjects:
Feather
Mercury
Monitoring
Seabird
Variation
Arctic
Oceanodroma leucorhoa
Sterna hirundo
Sterna paradisaea
Online Access:https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/273ec02f-819b-40ee-9bd3-7d44d5c7e457
https://doi.org/10.1897/08-163.1
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=56049120086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=56049120086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
Description
Summary:To our knowledge, no rigorous assessment of the variation in mercury concentrations within individual seabirds has been made using multiple body feathers. We analyzed five feathers from individual Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan), common terns (Sterna hirundo L.), and Leach's storm-petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa Veillot) and found levels of within-individual variability higher than population or time-series variation. Using a randomization procedure, we found a large range of possible mercury concentrations if only one feather per individual had been sampled. Researchers should report within-individual variability in future studies.

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