ArticleScientific reports2016
Mobilization of mercury from lean tissues during simulated migratory fasting in a model songbird.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- An Integrative Approach to Assessing the Impact of Mercury (Hg) on Avian Behaviour: From Molecule to Movement.Journal of xenobiotics · 2025Review
- Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2024Review
- Concentration of metals and metalloids in livers of birds of various foraging guilds collected during the autumn migration period in Poland.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2024Article
- Foraging behavior and age affect maternal transfer of mercury to northern elephant seal pups.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Internal Dynamics and Metabolism of Mercury in Biota: A Review of Insights from Mercury Stable Isotopes.Environmental science & technology · 2022Review
- A synthesis of patterns of environmental mercury inputs, exposure and effects in New York State.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Historical patterns in mercury exposure for North American songbirds.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Spatial variation in aquatic invertebrate and riparian songbird mercury exposure across a river-reservoir system with a legacy of mercury contamination.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Explaining variation in Colorado songbird blood mercury using migratory behavior, foraging guild, and diet.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Mercury exposure in migrating songbirds: correlations with physical condition.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- The threat of global mercury pollution to bird migration: potential mechanisms and current evidence.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Mercury exposure in sedentary and migratory Charadrius plovers distributed widely across China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Article
- High-precision isotopic analysis sheds new light on mercury metabolism in long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas).Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Foraging and fasting can influence contaminant concentrations in animals: an example with mercury contamination in a free-ranging marine mammal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The pollutant methylmercury accumulates within lean tissues of birds and other animals. Migrating birds catabolize substantial amounts of lean tissue during flight which may mobilize methylmercury and increase circulating levels of this neurotoxin. As a model for a migrating songbird, we fasted zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) that had been dosed with 0.0, 0.1, and 0.6 parts per million (ppm) dietary methylmercury and measured changes in blood total mercury concentrations (THg) in relation to reductions in lean mass. Birds lost 6-16% of their lean mass during the fast, and THg increased an average of 12% and 11% in the 0.1 and 0.6 ppm treatments, respectively. Trace amounts of THg in the 0.0 ppm control group also increased as a result of fasting, but remained extremely low. THg increased 0.4 ppm for each gram of lean mass catabolized in the higher dose birds. Our findings indicate that methylmercury is mobilized from lean tissues during protein catabolism and results in acute increases in circulating concentrations. This is a previously undocumented potential threat to wild migratory birds, which may experience greater surges in circulating methylmercury than demonstrated here as a result of their greater reductions in lean mass.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.