Do marine protected areas influence mercury exposure? Insights from a shark community in the tropical Northeast Pacific.

Autor: Le Croizier G; Instituto de Ciencias Del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Joel Montes Camarena S/N, Mazatlán, Sin, 82040, Mexico. Electronic address: gael.lecroizier@hotmail.fr., Lorrain A; Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR, F-29280, Plouzané, France., Hoyos-Padilla M; Pelagios-Kakunjá A.C, Sinaloa 1540, Col. Las Garzas, C.P. 23070, La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico; Fins Attached: Marine Research and Conservation, 19675 Still Glen Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80908, USA., Ketchum JT; Pelagios-Kakunjá A.C, Sinaloa 1540, Col. Las Garzas, C.P. 23070, La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico; MigraMar, Bodega Bay, CA, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Noroeste (CIBNOR), La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico., Amezcua-Martínez F; Instituto de Ciencias Del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Joel Montes Camarena S/N, Mazatlán, Sin, 82040, Mexico., Le Loc'h F; Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR, F-29280, Plouzané, France., Munaron JM; Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR, F-29280, Plouzané, France., Schaal G; Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR, F-29280, Plouzané, France., Point D; UMR Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET), Observatoire Midi Pyrénées (OMP), 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400, Toulouse, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) [Environ Pollut] 2023 Nov 01; Vol. 336, pp. 122352. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 08.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122352
Abstrakt: Biomass depletion caused by overfishing is likely to alter the structure of food webs and impact mercury transfer to marine predators. Although marine protected areas (MPAs) are spared from fishing pressure, their influence on biota mercury levels is poorly understood. Here, we used carbon and nitrogen stable isotope compositions as well as mercury concentrations in fin clips to characterize foraging habitat and mercury exposure of a shark community composed of migratory and resident species of the Revillagigedo archipelago, an offshore MPA in the Northeast Pacific off Mexico. We found that the probability of finding migratory sharks in the isotopic niche of Revillagigedo-resident sharks was low, likely reflecting the use of habitats outside the archipelago by highly mobile species. Community-wide variations in mercury were primarily explained by shark length, revealing that bioaccumulation was the main driver of Hg concentrations. We failed to detect a clear effect of foraging habitat on shark mercury exposure, which may be related to migratory species using both exploited and protected areas when moving outside the Revillagigedo MPA. More similar studies on the potential mitigation of Hg contamination by MPAs are needed in the future if fishing pressure increases to satisfy the growing global human population.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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