TY - JOUR

T1 - An assessment of mercury and its dietary drivers in fur of Arctic wolves from Greenland and High Arctic Canada

AU - Treu, Gabriele

AU - Sinding, Mikkel Holger S.

AU - Czirják, Gábor Á

AU - Dietz, Rune

AU - Gräff, Thomas

AU - Krone, Oliver

AU - Marquard-Petersen, Ulf

AU - Mikkelsen, Johan Brus

AU - Schulz, Ralf

AU - Sonne, Christian

AU - Søndergaard, Jens

AU - Sun, Jiachen

AU - Zubrod, Jochen

AU - Eulaers, Igor

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Mercury has become a ubiquitous hazardous element even ending up in pristine areas such as the Arctic, where it biomagnifies and leaves especially top predators vulnerable to potential health effects. Here we investigate total mercury (THg) concentrations and dietary proxies for trophic position and habitat foraging (δ15N and δ13C, respectively) in fur of 30 Arctic wolves collected during 1869–1998 in the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland. Fur THg concentrations (mean ± SD) of 1.46 ± 1.39 μg g −1 dry weight are within the range of earlier reported values for other Arctic terrestrial species. Based on putative thresholds for Hg-mediated toxic health effects, the studied Arctic wolves have most likely not been at compromised health. Dietary proxies show high dietary plasticity among Arctic wolves deriving nutrition from both marine and terrestrial food sources at various trophic positions. Variability in THg concentrations seem to be related to the wolves' trophic position rather than to different carbon sources or regional differences (East Greenland, the Foxe Basin and Baffin Bay area, respectively). Although the present study remains limited due to the scarce, yet unique historic study material and small sample size, it provides novel information on temporal and spatial variation in Hg pollution of remote Arctic species.

AB - Mercury has become a ubiquitous hazardous element even ending up in pristine areas such as the Arctic, where it biomagnifies and leaves especially top predators vulnerable to potential health effects. Here we investigate total mercury (THg) concentrations and dietary proxies for trophic position and habitat foraging (δ15N and δ13C, respectively) in fur of 30 Arctic wolves collected during 1869–1998 in the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland. Fur THg concentrations (mean ± SD) of 1.46 ± 1.39 μg g −1 dry weight are within the range of earlier reported values for other Arctic terrestrial species. Based on putative thresholds for Hg-mediated toxic health effects, the studied Arctic wolves have most likely not been at compromised health. Dietary proxies show high dietary plasticity among Arctic wolves deriving nutrition from both marine and terrestrial food sources at various trophic positions. Variability in THg concentrations seem to be related to the wolves' trophic position rather than to different carbon sources or regional differences (East Greenland, the Foxe Basin and Baffin Bay area, respectively). Although the present study remains limited due to the scarce, yet unique historic study material and small sample size, it provides novel information on temporal and spatial variation in Hg pollution of remote Arctic species.

KW - Dietary ecology

KW - Museum collection

KW - Stable isotope

KW - Top predator, risk assessment

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156171

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156171

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35613645

AN - SCOPUS:85131081527

VL - 838

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

SN - 0048-9697

IS - 2

M1 - 156171

ER -