Higher mercury contamination is associated with shorter telomeres in a long-lived seabird – A direct effect or a consequence of among-individual variation in phenotypic quality?

Bauch, Christina; Gatt, Marie Claire; Verhulst, Simon; Granadeiro, José Pedro; Catry, Paulo

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156359

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Due to their foraging strategies, behavioral ecologies, and life-history traits (e.g., breeding sequence, molting strategies, foraging ranges, migration patterns), seabirds generally have elevated body burdens of Hg that can ultimately impact their fitness, reduce their reproductive capacity and affect their population sizes over time (Braune et al 2006 ; Tartu et al 2013 ; Goutte et al 2014a , b ; Bond et al 2015 ; Bauch et al 2022 ; Chastel et al 2022 ). For instance, particular concerns arise for adverse Hg effects on the increasingly rare ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea , Braune et al 2006 ; Bond et al 2015 ) and there is evidence of physiological harm to the near-threatened, black-vented shearwater ( Puffinus opisthomelas ; Soldatini et al 2020 ) and sublethal effects on immunity, liver function and breeding parameters in an Antarctic seabird – the brown skua ( Stercorarius antarcticus ) (Ibañez et al 2024 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework

Evers,

Ackerman,

Åkerblom

et al. 2024

Ecotoxicology

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An important provision of the Minamata Convention on Mercury is to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted measures and its implementation. Here, we describe for the first time currently available biotic mercury (Hg) data on a global scale to improve the understanding of global efforts to reduce the impact of Hg pollution on people and the environment. Data from the peer-reviewed literature were compiled in the Global Biotic Mercury Synthesis (GBMS) database (>550,000 data points). These data provide a foundation for establishing a biomonitoring framework needed to track Hg concentrations in biota globally. We describe Hg exposure in the taxa identified by the Minamata Convention: fish, sea turtles, birds, and marine mammals. Based on the GBMS database, Hg concentrations are presented at relevant geographic scales for continents and oceanic basins. We identify some effective regional templates for monitoring methylmercury (MeHg) availability in the environment, but overall illustrate that there is a general lack of regional biomonitoring initiatives around the world, especially in Africa, Australia, Indo-Pacific, Middle East, and South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Temporal trend data for Hg in biota are generally limited. Ecologically sensitive sites (where biota have above average MeHg tissue concentrations) have been identified throughout the world. Efforts to model and quantify ecosystem sensitivity locally, regionally, and globally could help establish effective and efficient biomonitoring programs. We present a framework for a global Hg biomonitoring network that includes a three-step continental and oceanic approach to integrate existing biomonitoring efforts and prioritize filling regional data gaps linked with key Hg sources. We describe a standardized approach that builds on an evidence-based evaluation to assess the Minamata Convention’s progress to reduce the impact of global Hg pollution on people and the environment.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework

Evers,

Ackerman,

Åkerblom

et al. 2024

Ecotoxicology

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“…Birds represent the best studied class of wild vertebrates in terms of telomeres (Criscuolo, Dobson & Schull, 2021) with most studies falling into one of four broad categories: ecotoxicological studies, stress‐associated studies, migration‐related studies, and age‐model studies. As in other organisms, telomere length has been shown to decrease at an increased rate in response to toxins or contaminants in birds, including Arctic‐breeding black‐legged kittiwakes [ Rissa tridactyla (Linnaeus)] (Blévin et al ., 2016), and Cory's shearwaters [ Calonectris borealis (Cory)] (Bauch et al ., 2022). In stress‐associated studies, telomere length dynamics were compared to environmental stressors including noise (Dorado‐Correa et al ., 2018; Grunst et al ., 2020), an urban environment (Salmón et al ., 2016; Ibáñez‐Álamo et al ., 2018), or anthropogenic activity (Caccavo et al ., 2021) as well as social factors such as brood size (Voillemot et al ., 2012; Quirici et al ., 2016; Criscuolo, Zahn & Bize, 2017, Noguera & Velando, 2021), brood parasitism (Soler et al ., 2015), proximity to predators (Kärkkäinen et al ., 2019), and social isolation (Aydinonat et al ., 2014).…”

Section: Biological Clocks and Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Biological clocks as age estimation markers in animals: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

et al. 2023

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Various biological attributes associated with individual fitness in animals change predictably over the lifespan of an organism. Therefore, the study of animal ecology and the work of conservationists frequently relies upon the ability to assign animals to functionally relevant age classes to model population fitness. Several approaches have been applied to determining individual age and, while these methods have proved useful, they are not without limitations and often lack standardisation or are only applicable to specific species. For these reasons, scientists have explored the potential use of biological clocks towards creating a universal age‐determination method. Two biological clocks, tooth layer annulation and otolith layering have found universal appeal. Both methods are highly invasive and most appropriate for post‐mortem age‐at‐death estimation. More recently, attributes of cellular ageing previously explored in humans have been adapted to studying ageing in animals for the use of less‐invasive molecular methods for determining age. Here, we review two such methods, assessment of methylation and telomere length, describing (i) what they are, (ii) how they change with age, and providing (iii) a summary and meta‐analysis of studies that have explored their utility in animal age determination. We found that both attributes have been studied across multiple vertebrate classes, however, telomere studies were used before methylation studies and telomere length has been modelled in nearly twice as many studies. Telomere length studies included in the review often related changes to stress responses and illustrated that telomere length is sensitive to environmental and social stressors and, in the absence of repair mechanisms such as telomerase or alternative lengthening modes, lacks the ability to recover. Methylation studies, however, while also detecting sensitivity to stressors and toxins, illustrated the ability to recover from such stresses after a period of accelerated ageing, likely due to constitutive expression or reactivation of repair enzymes such as DNA methyl transferases. We also found that both studied attributes have parentally heritable features, but the mode of inheritance differs among taxa and may relate to heterogamy. Our meta‐analysis included more than 40 species in common for methylation and telomere length, although both analyses included at least 60 age‐estimation models. We found that methylation outperforms telomere length in terms of predictive power evidenced from effect sizes (more than double that observed for telomeres) and smaller prediction intervals. Both methods produced age correlation models using similar sample sizes and were able to classify individuals into young, middle, or old age classes with high accuracy. Our review and meta‐analysis illustrate that both methods are well suited to studying age in animals and do not suffer significantly from variation due to differences in the lifespan of the species, genome size, karyotype, or tissue type but rather that quantitative method, patterns of inheritance, and environmental factors should be the main considerations. Thus, provided that complex factors affecting the measured trait can be accounted for, both methylation and telomere length are promising targets to develop as biomarkers for age determination in animals.

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“…Because they are associated with longevity and survival in vertebrates, telomeres represent a physiological marker that may be useful to estimate the toxicological consequences of contaminant exposure (Sebastiano et al, 2020). A recent study has reported that higher feather Hg concentration was associated with shorter te-lomeres in Cory's Shearwater Calonectris borealis (Bauch et al, 2022). However, to date only a few studies have explored telomere-contaminant relationships in Arctic free-living birds, mainly in relation to organic pollutants (Sletten et al, 2016;Blévin et al, 2016Blévin et al, , 2017Eckbo et al, 2019;Sebastiano et al, 2020).…”

Section: Oxidative Stress and Telomeresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mercury contamination and potential health risks to Arctic seabirds and shorebirds

Chastel

Fort

Ackerman

et al. 2022

Science of The Total Environment

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Higher mercury contamination is associated with shorter telomeres in a long-lived seabird – A direct effect or a consequence of among-individual variation in phenotypic quality?

Cited by 8 publications

References 70 publications

Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework

Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework

Biological clocks as age estimation markers in animals: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Mercury contamination and potential health risks to Arctic seabirds and shorebirds

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