Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic
Abstract We examined spatial variation in total mercury (THg) concentrations in 100 hair samples collected between 2008 and 2016 from 87 polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the Norwegian (Svalbard Archipelago, western Barents Sea) and Russian Arctic (Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and Chukchi Sea). We used la...
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ftunivoulu:oai:oulu.fi:nbnfi-fe2022051234933 2023-07-30T04:00:27+02:00 Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic Lippold, A. (Anna) Boltunov, A. (Andrei) Aars, J. (Jon) Andersen, M. (Magnus) Blanchet, M.-A. (Marie-Anne) Dietz, R. (Rune) Eulaers, I. (Igor) Morshina, T. N. (Tamara N.) Sevastyanov, V. S. (Vyacheslav S.) Welker, J. M. (Jeffrey M.) Routti, H. (Heli) 2022 application/pdf http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2022051234933 eng eng Elsevier info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Chukchi Sea Hg Kara Sea Stable isotopes Svalbard info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftunivoulu 2023-07-08T19:59:18Z Abstract We examined spatial variation in total mercury (THg) concentrations in 100 hair samples collected between 2008 and 2016 from 87 polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the Norwegian (Svalbard Archipelago, western Barents Sea) and Russian Arctic (Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and Chukchi Sea). We used latitude and longitude of home range centroid for the Norwegian bears and capture position for the Russian bears to account for the locality. We additionally examined hair stable isotope values of carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) to investigate feeding habits and their possible effect on THg concentrations. Median THg levels in polar bears from the Norwegian Arctic (1.99 μg g⁻¹ dry weight) and the three Russian Arctic regions (1.33–1.75 μg g⁻¹ dry weight) constituted about 25–50% of levels typically reported for the Greenlandic or North American populations. Total Hg concentrations in the Norwegian bears increased with intake of marine and higher trophic prey, while δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N did not explain variation in THg concentrations in the Russian bears. Total Hg levels were higher in northwest compared to southeast Svalbard. δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values did not show any spatial pattern in the Norwegian Arctic. Total Hg concentrations adjusted for feeding ecology showed similar spatial trends as the measured concentrations. In contrast, within the Russian Arctic, THg levels were rather uniformly distributed, whereas δ¹³C values increased towards the east and south. The results indicate that Hg exposure in Norwegian and Russian polar bears is at the lower end of the pan-Arctic spectrum, and its spatial variation in the Norwegian and Russian Arctic is not driven by the feeding ecology of polar bears. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Barents Sea Chukchi Chukchi Sea greenlandic Kara Sea laptev Laptev Sea Svalbard Ursus maritimus Jultika - University of Oulu repository Arctic Barents Sea Chukchi Sea Kara Sea Laptev Sea Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Jultika - University of Oulu repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivoulu |
language |
English |
topic |
Chukchi Sea Hg Kara Sea Stable isotopes Svalbard |
spellingShingle |
Chukchi Sea Hg Kara Sea Stable isotopes Svalbard Lippold, A. (Anna) Boltunov, A. (Andrei) Aars, J. (Jon) Andersen, M. (Magnus) Blanchet, M.-A. (Marie-Anne) Dietz, R. (Rune) Eulaers, I. (Igor) Morshina, T. N. (Tamara N.) Sevastyanov, V. S. (Vyacheslav S.) Welker, J. M. (Jeffrey M.) Routti, H. (Heli) Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic |
topic_facet |
Chukchi Sea Hg Kara Sea Stable isotopes Svalbard |
description |
Abstract We examined spatial variation in total mercury (THg) concentrations in 100 hair samples collected between 2008 and 2016 from 87 polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the Norwegian (Svalbard Archipelago, western Barents Sea) and Russian Arctic (Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and Chukchi Sea). We used latitude and longitude of home range centroid for the Norwegian bears and capture position for the Russian bears to account for the locality. We additionally examined hair stable isotope values of carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) to investigate feeding habits and their possible effect on THg concentrations. Median THg levels in polar bears from the Norwegian Arctic (1.99 μg g⁻¹ dry weight) and the three Russian Arctic regions (1.33–1.75 μg g⁻¹ dry weight) constituted about 25–50% of levels typically reported for the Greenlandic or North American populations. Total Hg concentrations in the Norwegian bears increased with intake of marine and higher trophic prey, while δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N did not explain variation in THg concentrations in the Russian bears. Total Hg levels were higher in northwest compared to southeast Svalbard. δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values did not show any spatial pattern in the Norwegian Arctic. Total Hg concentrations adjusted for feeding ecology showed similar spatial trends as the measured concentrations. In contrast, within the Russian Arctic, THg levels were rather uniformly distributed, whereas δ¹³C values increased towards the east and south. The results indicate that Hg exposure in Norwegian and Russian polar bears is at the lower end of the pan-Arctic spectrum, and its spatial variation in the Norwegian and Russian Arctic is not driven by the feeding ecology of polar bears. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lippold, A. (Anna) Boltunov, A. (Andrei) Aars, J. (Jon) Andersen, M. (Magnus) Blanchet, M.-A. (Marie-Anne) Dietz, R. (Rune) Eulaers, I. (Igor) Morshina, T. N. (Tamara N.) Sevastyanov, V. S. (Vyacheslav S.) Welker, J. M. (Jeffrey M.) Routti, H. (Heli) |
author_facet |
Lippold, A. (Anna) Boltunov, A. (Andrei) Aars, J. (Jon) Andersen, M. (Magnus) Blanchet, M.-A. (Marie-Anne) Dietz, R. (Rune) Eulaers, I. (Igor) Morshina, T. N. (Tamara N.) Sevastyanov, V. S. (Vyacheslav S.) Welker, J. M. (Jeffrey M.) Routti, H. (Heli) |
author_sort |
Lippold, A. (Anna) |
title |
Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic |
title_short |
Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic |
title_full |
Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) hair from the Norwegian and Russian Arctic |
title_sort |
spatial variation in mercury concentrations in polar bear (ursus maritimus) hair from the norwegian and russian arctic |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2022051234933 |
geographic |
Arctic Barents Sea Chukchi Sea Kara Sea Laptev Sea Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Barents Sea Chukchi Sea Kara Sea Laptev Sea Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
genre |
Arctic Barents Sea Chukchi Chukchi Sea greenlandic Kara Sea laptev Laptev Sea Svalbard Ursus maritimus |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barents Sea Chukchi Chukchi Sea greenlandic Kara Sea laptev Laptev Sea Svalbard Ursus maritimus |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
_version_ |
1772810940987736064 |