ArticleEcotoxicology (London, England)2020
Do songbirds in wetlands show higher mercury bioaccumulation relative to conspecifics in non-wetland habitats?
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 4 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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mercury in Neotropical birds: a synthesis and prospectus on 13 years of exposure data.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2023Review
- Mercury toxicity risk and corticosterone levels across the breeding range of the Yellow-breasted Chat.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2022Article
- The impact of mercury on North American songbirds: effects, trends, and predictive factors.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
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Environmental conditions in wetlands facilitate favorable biogeochemical conditions for the conversion of inorganic mercury into methylmercury. For this reason, wetlands are increasingly classified as mercury hotspots, places where biota exhibit elevated mercury concentrations. While it is clear that wetlands play an important role in methylmercury production, factors such as geographic variation in mercury deposition, wetland type, and trophic dynamics can cause variation in mercury dynamics and bioaccumulation in biota occupying wetlands or connected to wetland trophic systems. Here, we use songbirds as bioindicators in a two-pronged approach aimed at evaluating the state of our understanding of mercury bioaccumulation by songbirds in wetland ecosystems. First, we use a case study in southeast Missouri to compare blood mercury concentrations in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) occupying wetland and non-wetland habitats to test the hypothesis that songbirds in wetlands will have higher mercury bioaccumulation than those in non-wetlands. Adult tree swallows in wetlands had significantly higher blood mercury concentrations than those in non-wetlands; however, no difference between ecosystems was detected in eastern bluebirds. Second, we present a review of the current literature on mercury in songbirds in wetland ecosystems across North America. Mercury concentrations in songbirds varied among wetland types and with geographic location, often in an unpredictable manner. Mercury concentrations in songbird blood varied 3-10 fold at locations separated only by ~10 to several hundred kilometers. This magnitude of difference in blood mercury concentrations among wetlands exceeds documented differences between wetland and non-wetland ecosystems. Therefore, we caution against the automatic assumption that songbirds occupying wetlands will have higher mercury bioaccumulation than conspecifics living in other habitats.
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