Céline Albert, Børge Moe, Hallvard Strøm, David Grémillet, Maud Brault-Favrou, Arnaud Tarroux, Sébastien Descamps, Vegard Sandøy Bråthen, Benjamin Merkel, Jens Åström, Françoise Amélineau, Frédéric Angelier, Tycho Anker-Nilssen, Olivier Chastel, Signe Christensen-Dalsgaard, Johannis Danielsen, Kyle Elliott, Kjell Einar Erikstad, Alexey Ezhov, Per Fauchald, Geir W Gabrielsen, Maria Gavrilo, Sveinn Are Hanssen, Hálfdán H Helgason, Malin Kjellstadli Johansen, Yann Kolbeinsson, Yuri Krasnov, Magdalene Langset, Jérémy Lemaire, Svein-Håkon Lorentsen, Bergur Olsen, Allison Patterson, Christine Plumejeaud-Perreau, Tone K Reiertsen, Geir Helge Systad, Paul M Thompson, Thorkell Lindberg Thórarinsson, Paco Bustamante, Jérôme Fort
Mercury (Hg) is a heterogeneously distributed toxicant affecting wildlife and human health. Yet, the spatial distribution of Hg remains poorly documented, especially in food webs, even though this knowledge is essential to assess large-scale risk of toxicity for the biota and human populations. Here, we used seabirds to assess, at an unprecedented population and geographic magnitude and high resolution, the spatial distribution of Hg in North Atlantic marine food webs. To this end, we combined tracking data of 837 seabirds from seven different species and 27 breeding colonies located across the North Atlantic and Atlantic Arctic together with Hg analyses in feathers representing individual seabird contamination based on their winter distribution...
May 21, 2024: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America