Mercury in a community of subantarctic seabirds: Chick feather concentrations and influence of foraging habitat and diet
Abstract
Using top predators as sentinels of the marine environment, Hg contamination was investigated within the large subantarctic seabird community of the Kerguelen Islands, a remote and poorly known area located in the Southern Indian Ocean. Focusing on chicks (21 species), Hg analysis pointed out large inter-specific variations in body feather Hg concentrations, which ranged from 0.08 ± 0.01 to 5.31 ± 1.12 μg∙g-1 dry mass. Seabirds from Kerguelen thus encompass the whole range of chick feather Hg v...