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Storm petrels as indicators of pelagic seabird exposure to chemical elements in the Antarctic marine ecosystem
- Source :
- The Science of the total environment. 692
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Data on trace element bioavailability in the south-polar marine ecosystem is still scarce, compared to that relating to temperate zones. Seabirds can be used as indicators of ecosystem health and sentinels of environmental pollution, constituting a link between marine and terrestrial environments. Here, we analysed the concentration of 17 elements (with special emphasis on mercury, Hg) in feathers of adults and chicks of two pelagic seabirds – the Wilson's storm petrel Oceanites oceanicus and the black-bellied storm petrel Fregetta tropica – breeding sympatrically in the maritime Antarctic. Since adult feathers are formed during the non-breeding period away from the breeding grounds, but down and body feathers of chicks grow at the breeding sites, we were able to evaluate the birds' exposure to contaminants at various stages of their annual life cycle and in various marine zones. We found that of the two studied species, adult black-bellied storm petrels had significantly higher mercury, selenium and copper levels (5.47 ± 1.61; 5.19 ± 1.18; 8.20 ± 0.56 μg g˗1 dw, respectively) than Wilson's storm petrels (2.38 ± 1.47; 1.81 ± 0.98; 2.52 ± 2.35 μg g˗1 dw, respectively). We found that Wilson's storm petrel chicks had a significantly different contaminant profile than adults. Arsenic, bismuth and antimony were detected exclusively in the chick feathers, and the Se:Hg molar ratio was higher in chicks than in adults. Our study also suggests considerable maternal transfer of Hg (to down feathers) in both species. As global contaminant emissions are expected to increase, birds inhabiting remote areas with sparse anthropogenic pollution can indicate the temporal trends in global contamination.
- Subjects :
- animal structures
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Antarctic Regions
Environmental pollution
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Oceanites oceanicus
Birds
Species Specificity
biology.animal
Environmental Chemistry
Animals
Marine ecosystem
Waste Management and Disposal
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
biology
Ecology
Pelagic zone
Mercury
Feathers
biology.organism_classification
Pollution
Trace Elements
Fregetta tropica
Procellariiformes
Feather
visual_art
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Environmental science
Seabird
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Environmental Monitoring
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18791026
- Volume :
- 692
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Science of the total environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c6ac9e1f17ede853020d56f65bbb791e