Cephalopod beak sections used to trace mercury levels throughout the life of cephalopods: The giant warty squid Moroteuthopsis longimana as a case study
Queirós, José P.; Bustamante, Paco; Cherel, Yves; Coelho, João P.; Seco, José; Roberts, Jim; Pereira, Eduarda; Xavier, José C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9621-6660. 2020 Cephalopod beak sections used to trace mercury levels throughout the life of cephalopods: The giant warty squid Moroteuthopsis longimana as a case study. Marine Environmental Research, 161, 105049. 7, pp. 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105049
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract/Summary
Cephalopods represent an important pathway for mercury transfer through food-webs. Due to the general difficulties in capturing oceanic squid, beaks found in the diet of top predators can be used to study their life-cycles and ecological role. Using upper beaks of the giant warty squid Moroteuthopsis longimana (major prey in the Southern Ocean), we describe a method to assess mercury concentrations along the life of cephalopods through the segmentary analysis of beak sections (i.e. rostrum's tip and subsections along the hood). Distinct total mercury concentrations in the different subsections support that beaks can be used to study mercury levels in different periods of cephalopods' life-cycle. Mercury values in the anterior (1.3–7.9 μg kg−1 dw) and posterior (7.8–12.5 μg kg−1 dw) subsections reflect juvenile and adult stages, respectively. Furthermore, these results confirm that mercury bioaccumulates continuously throughout the individuals' life, with adults doubling their mercury concentrations to juveniles.
Item Type: | Publication - Article |
---|---|
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105049 |
ISSN: | 01411136 |
Additional Keywords: | Mercury, Trace elements, Southern ocean, Ontogenetic shifts, Bioaccumulation |
Date made live: | 26 Jun 2020 08:29 +0 (UTC) |
URI: | https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/528024 |
Actions (login required)
View Item |
Document Downloads
Downloads for past 30 days
Downloads per month over past year