Mercury concentrations in blood and back feathers are repeatable, heritable and correlated in a long-lived seabird.

Autor: Bertram J; Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Electronic address: justine.bertram@ifv-vogelwarte.de., Moiron M; Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany; Department of Evolutionary Biology, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany., Bichet C; Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), CNRS-La Rochelle Université, Villiers-en-Bois, France., Kürten N; Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany., Schupp PJ; Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Department for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Terramare, Wilhelmshaven, Niedersachsen DE 26382, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, University of Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 231, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany., Bouwhuis S; Institute of Avian Research, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Dec 10; Vol. 955, pp. 176939. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 15.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176939
Abstrakt: Mercury pollution is increasing both in the environment and in various organisms, especially top-predators. If variation in individual mercury concentrations is underpinned by genetic among-individual differences in traits related to mercury uptake, storage or excretion, and results in variation in fitness, populations may have the potential to evolve in response to this development. Few studies, however, have been able to collect sufficient information to investigate the genetic basis of pollution levels. We ran Bayesian quantitative genetic analyses, combining pedigree information obtained from a marine top-predator, the common tern (Sterna hirundo), with total mercury concentrations (THg) measured in 1364 blood and 1560 back feather samples obtained from >600 individual birds across seven years. Blood and back feather THg concentrations differed in repeatability (19 vs. 64 %, respectively), but showed similar levels of heritability (c. 9 %) and evolvability (c. 2 %). Blood and back feather THg concentrations were positively correlated at the phenotypic, but not genetic, level. Although further work is needed to elucidate the uptake, storage or excretion pathways underlying these patterns, our study provides pioneering insights into the architecture of THg concentrations, and suggests that adaptation to environmental pollution may to some extent be possible.
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 © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: