ArticleEcotoxicology (London, England)2020
The threat of global mercury pollution to bird migration: potential mechanisms and current evidence.
Article in Ecotoxicology (London, England), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mercury in Red Knots (Toxics · 2026Article
- An Integrative Approach to Assessing the Impact of Mercury (Hg) on Avian Behaviour: From Molecule to Movement.Journal of xenobiotics · 2025Review
- Factors Influencing Cage Escape Behavior in a Migrating Passerine at a Stop-Over Site.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Trace element contamination in three shorebird species migrating through Delaware Bay, New Jersey: arsenic, mercury and selenium are increasing.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2024Review
- Exposure to Sublethal Concentrations of Lead (Pb) Affects Ecologically Relevant Behaviors in House Sparrows (Passer domesticus).Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology · 2024Article
- Article
- Mercury in Neotropical birds: a synthesis and prospectus on 13 years of exposure data.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2023Review
- Mercury-Modulated Immune Responses in Arctic Barnacle Goslings (Environmental science & technology · 2023Article
- Bioinorganic Nanoparticles for the Remediation of Environmental Pollution: Critical Appraisal and Potential Avenues.Bioinorganic chemistry and applications · 2023Review
- Short-term mercury exposure disrupts muscular and hepatic lipid metabolism in a migrant songbird.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Mercury toxicity risk and corticosterone levels across the breeding range of the Yellow-breasted Chat.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2022Article
- Differential reliance on aquatic prey subsidies influences mercury exposure in riparian arachnids and songbirds.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Nanomaterials for Remediation of Environmental Pollutants.Bioinorganic chemistry and applications · 2021Review
- The effects of climate, habitat, and trophic position on methylmercury bioavailability for breeding New York songbirds.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- The impact of mercury on North American songbirds: effects, trends, and predictive factors.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Mercury delays cerebellar development in a model songbird species, the zebra finch.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Mercury exposure in migrating songbirds: correlations with physical condition.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Mercury exposure to swallows breeding in Canada inferred from feathers grown on breeding and non-breeding grounds.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Mercury exposure in sedentary and migratory Charadrius plovers distributed widely across China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mercury is a global pollutant that has been widely shown to adversely affect reproduction and other endpoints related to fitness and health in birds, but almost nothing is known about its effects on migration relative to other life cycle processes. Here I consider the physiological and histological effects that mercury is known to have on non-migrating birds and non-avian vertebrates to identify potential mechanisms by which mercury might hinder migration performance. I posit that the broad ability of mercury to inactivate enzymes and compromise the function of other proteins is a single mechanism by which mercury has strong potential to disrupt many of the physiological processes that make long-distance migration possible. In just this way alone, there is reason to expect mercury to interfere with navigation, flight endurance, oxidative balance, and stopover refueling. Navigation and flight could be further affected by neurotoxic effects of mercury on the brain regions that process geomagnetic information from the visual system and control biomechanics, respectively. Interference with photochemical reactions in the retina and decreases in scotopic vision sensitivity caused by mercury also have the potential to disrupt visual-based magnetic navigation. Finally, migration performance and possibly survival might be limited by the immunosuppressive effects of mercury on birds at a time when exposure to novel pathogens and parasites is great. I conclude that mercury pollution is likely to be further challenging what is already often the most difficult and perilous phase of a migratory bird's annual cycle, potentially contributing to global declines in migratory bird populations.
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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.