Cargando…

Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation

Seabirds are widely used as bioindicators of mercury (Hg) contamination in marine ecosystems and the investigation of their foraging strategies is of key importance to better understand methylmercury (MeHg) exposure pathways and environmental sources within the different ecosystems. Here we report s...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Renedo, Marina, Amouroux, David, Pedrero, Zoyne, Bustamante, Paco, Cherel, Yves
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5995893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29891979
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27079-9
_version_ 1783330697984868352
author Renedo, Marina
Amouroux, David
Pedrero, Zoyne
Bustamante, Paco
Cherel, Yves
author_facet Renedo, Marina
Amouroux, David
Pedrero, Zoyne
Bustamante, Paco
Cherel, Yves
author_sort Renedo, Marina
collection PubMed
description Seabirds are widely used as bioindicators of mercury (Hg) contamination in marine ecosystems and the investigation of their foraging strategies is of key importance to better understand methylmercury (MeHg) exposure pathways and environmental sources within the different ecosystems. Here we report stable isotopic composition for both Hg mass-dependent (e.g. δ(202)Hg) and mass-independent (e.g. Δ(199)Hg) fractionation (proxies of Hg sources and transformations), carbon (δ(13)C, proxy of foraging habitat) and nitrogen (δ(15)N, proxy of trophic position) in blood of four species of sympatric penguins breeding at the subantarctic Crozet Islands (Southern Indian Ocean). Penguins have species-specific foraging strategies, from coastal to oceanic waters and from benthic to pelagic dives, and feed on different prey. A progressive increase to heavier Hg isotopic composition (δ(202)Hg and Δ(199)Hg, respectively) was observed from benthic (1.45 ± 0.12 and 1.41 ± 0.06‰) to epipelagic (1.93 ± 0.18 and 1.77 ± 0.13‰) penguins, indicating a benthic-pelagic gradient of MeHg sources close to Crozet Islands. The relative variations of MeHg concentration, δ(202)Hg and Δ(199)Hg with pelagic penguins feeding in Polar Front circumpolar waters (1.66 ± 0.11 and 1.54 ± 0.06‰) support that different MeHg sources occur at large scales in Southern Ocean deep waters.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5995893
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-59958932018-06-21 Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation Renedo, Marina Amouroux, David Pedrero, Zoyne Bustamante, Paco Cherel, Yves Sci Rep Article Seabirds are widely used as bioindicators of mercury (Hg) contamination in marine ecosystems and the investigation of their foraging strategies is of key importance to better understand methylmercury (MeHg) exposure pathways and environmental sources within the different ecosystems. Here we report stable isotopic composition for both Hg mass-dependent (e.g. δ(202)Hg) and mass-independent (e.g. Δ(199)Hg) fractionation (proxies of Hg sources and transformations), carbon (δ(13)C, proxy of foraging habitat) and nitrogen (δ(15)N, proxy of trophic position) in blood of four species of sympatric penguins breeding at the subantarctic Crozet Islands (Southern Indian Ocean). Penguins have species-specific foraging strategies, from coastal to oceanic waters and from benthic to pelagic dives, and feed on different prey. A progressive increase to heavier Hg isotopic composition (δ(202)Hg and Δ(199)Hg, respectively) was observed from benthic (1.45 ± 0.12 and 1.41 ± 0.06‰) to epipelagic (1.93 ± 0.18 and 1.77 ± 0.13‰) penguins, indicating a benthic-pelagic gradient of MeHg sources close to Crozet Islands. The relative variations of MeHg concentration, δ(202)Hg and Δ(199)Hg with pelagic penguins feeding in Polar Front circumpolar waters (1.66 ± 0.11 and 1.54 ± 0.06‰) support that different MeHg sources occur at large scales in Southern Ocean deep waters. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5995893/ /pubmed/29891979 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27079-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Renedo, Marina
Amouroux, David
Pedrero, Zoyne
Bustamante, Paco
Cherel, Yves
Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
title Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
title_full Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
title_fullStr Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
title_full_unstemmed Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
title_short Identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of MeHg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
title_sort identification of sources and bioaccumulation pathways of mehg in subantarctic penguins: a stable isotopic investigation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5995893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29891979
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27079-9
work_keys_str_mv AT renedomarina identificationofsourcesandbioaccumulationpathwaysofmehginsubantarcticpenguinsastableisotopicinvestigation
AT amourouxdavid identificationofsourcesandbioaccumulationpathwaysofmehginsubantarcticpenguinsastableisotopicinvestigation
AT pedrerozoyne identificationofsourcesandbioaccumulationpathwaysofmehginsubantarcticpenguinsastableisotopicinvestigation
AT bustamantepaco identificationofsourcesandbioaccumulationpathwaysofmehginsubantarcticpenguinsastableisotopicinvestigation
AT cherelyves identificationofsourcesandbioaccumulationpathwaysofmehginsubantarcticpenguinsastableisotopicinvestigation