New insights into the chemical forms of extremely high methylmercury in songbird feathers from a contaminated site

Autor: Guangle Qiu, Kasun S. Abeysinghe, Zhidong Xu, Xiaohang Xu, Yubo Zhang, Lirong Zheng, Wen-Xiong Wang, Qinhui Lu, Longchao Liang, Chunhao Gu
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Environmental Engineering
Structure analysis
Health
Toxicology and Mutagenesis
0208 environmental biotechnology
Food consumption
chemistry.chemical_element
02 engineering and technology
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Mining
Songbirds
chemistry.chemical_compound
Species Specificity
Animals
Humans
Environmental Chemistry
Methylmercury
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
biology
Fishes
Public Health
Environmental and Occupational Health
General Medicine
General Chemistry
Glutathione
Feathers
Methylmercury Compounds
Contamination
biology.organism_classification
Pollution
020801 environmental engineering
Mercury (element)
Songbird
X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy
Seafood
chemistry
Feather
visual_art
Environmental chemistry
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Water Pollutants
Chemical
Environmental Monitoring
Zdroj: Chemosphere. 225:803-809
ISSN: 0045-6535
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.03.060
Popis: The chemical forms of mercury (Hg), particularly methylmercury (MeHg), in songbird feathers from an abandoned mining region were analyzed via X-ray absorption near-edge structure analysis (XANES). In feathers, proportions of MeHg as total mercury (75.6-100%) quantified by the XANES were directly comparable to the chemical extraction values (74.1-95.9%). Most of MeHg were bound with cysteine (Cys) and reduced glutathione (GSH), whereas inorganic mercury (IHg) was mainly bound with GSH. These results were consistent with those found in fish muscles and human hairs of both fish consumers and occupational Hg exposure populations. Our study suggested that chemical forms and speciation of Hg were highly dependent on the exposure sources and food consumption, respectively. Bird feathers were able to selectively accumulate MeHg due to their special binding ways. However, detailed mechanisms of Hg accumulation in bird feathers remain to be further elucidated.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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