Contrasting Spatial and Seasonal Trends of Methylmercury Exposure Pathways of Arctic Seabirds: Combination of Large-Scale Tracking and Stable Isotopic Approaches

• Published in: Environmental Science & Technology
• Main Authors: Renedo, Marina, Amouroux, David, Albert, Céline, Bérail, Sylvain, Bråthen, Vegard Sandøy, Gavrilo, Maria, Grémillet, David, Helgason, Hálfdán H., Jakubas, Dariusz, Mosbech, Anders, Strøm, Hallvard, Tessier, Emmanuel, Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna, Bustamante, Paco, Fort, Jérôme
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 2020
• Subjects: VDP::Teknologi: 500::Miljøteknologi: 610; VDP::Technology: 500::Environmental engineering: 610; VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480; VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Zoology and botany: 480; Arctic; Alle alle; arctic marine biota; little auk; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/19729; https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c03285

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science and Technology , copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c03285 . Despite the limited direct anthropogenic mercury (Hg) inputs in the circumpolar Arctic, elevated concentrations of methylmercury (MeHg) are accumulated in Arctic marine biota. However, the MeHg production and bioaccumulation pathways in these ecosystems have not been completely unraveled. We measured Hg concentrations and stable isotope ratios of Hg, carbon, and nitrogen in the feathers and blood of geolocator-tracked little auk Alle alle from five Arctic breeding colonies. The wide-range spatial mobility and tissue-specific Hg integration times of this planktivorous seabird allowed the exploration of their spatial (wintering quarters/breeding grounds) and seasonal (nonbreeding/breeding periods) MeHg exposures. An east-to-west increase of head feather Hg concentrations (1.74–3.48 μg·g–1) was accompanied by significant spatial trends of Hg isotope (particularly Δ199Hg: 0.96–1.13‰) and carbon isotope (δ13C: −20.6 to −19.4‰) ratios. These trends suggest a distinct mixing/proportion of MeHg sources between western North Atlantic and eastern Arctic regions. Higher Δ199Hg values (+0.4‰) in northern colonies indicate an accumulation of more photochemically impacted MeHg, supporting shallow MeHg production and bioaccumulation in high Arctic waters. The combination of seabird tissue isotopic analysis and spatial tracking helps in tracing the MeHg sources at various spatio-temporal scales.