Mercury exposure of tidal marsh songbirds in the northeastern United States and its association with nest survival.

Autor: Ruskin KJ; Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 123 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, USA. katharine.ruskin@maine.edu., Herring G; United States Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA., Eagles-Smith CA; United States Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA., Eiklor AB; Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, 1 National Life Dr Montpelier, Davis 1, VT, 05620-3520, USA., Elphick CS; Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Center of Biological Risk, University of Connecticut, 75 North Eagleville Road, U-43, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA., Etterson MA; United States Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division, 6201 Congdon Boulevard, Duluth, MN, 55804, USA., Field CR; Department of Natural Resources Science, University of Rhode Island 45 Upper College Rd, Kingston, RI, 02881, USA., Longenecker RA; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Regional Office, 300 Westgate Center Drive, Hadley, MA, 01035, USA., Kovach AI; Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, 46 College Road, Durham, NH, 03824, USA., Gregory Shriver W; Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware, 257 Townsend Hall, Newark, DE, 19716, USA., Walsh J; Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA., Olsen BJ; Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 123 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecotoxicology (London, England) [Ecotoxicology] 2022 Mar; Vol. 31 (2), pp. 208-220. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Nov 16.
DOI: 10.1007/s10646-021-02488-1
Abstrakt: The biogeochemistry of tidal marsh sediments facilitates the transformation of mercury (Hg) into the biologically available form methylmercury (MeHg), resulting in elevated Hg exposures to tidal marsh wildlife. Saltmarsh and Acadian Nelson's sparrows (Ammospiza caudacutua and A. nelsoni subvirgatus, respectively) exclusively inhabit tidal marshes, potentially experiencing elevated risk to Hg exposure, and have experienced range-wide population declines. To characterize spatial and temporal variation of Hg exposure in these species, we sampled total mercury (THg) in blood collected from 9 populations spanning 560 km of coastline, including individuals resampled within and among years. Using concurrent nesting studies, we tested whether THg was correlated with nest survival probabilities, an index of fecundity. Blood THg ranged from 0.074-3.373 µg/g ww across 170 samples from 127 individuals. We detected high spatial variability in Hg exposure, observing differences of more than 45-fold across all individuals and 8-fold in mean blood THg among all study plots, including 4-fold between study plots within 4 km. Intraindividual changes in blood Hg exposure did not vary systematically in time but were considerable, varying by up to 2-fold within and among years. Controlling for both species differences and maximum water level, the dominant driver of fecundity in this system, nest survival probability decreased by 10% across the full range of female blood THg concentrations observed. We conclude that Hg has the potential to impair songbird reproduction, potentially exacerbating known climate-change driven population declines from sea-level rise in saltmarsh and Acadian Nelson's sparrows.
(© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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