Blood and feathers are the two most targeted avian tissues for environmental biomonitoring studies, with mercury (Hg) concentration in blood and body feathers reflecting short and long-term Hg exposure, respectively. In this work, we investigated how Hg isotopic composition (e.g., δ²⁰²Hg and Δ¹⁹⁹Hg) of blood and feathers from either seabird chicks (skuas, n = 40) or adults (penguins, n = 62) can accurately provide information on exposure to Hg in marine ecosystems. Our results indicate a strong correlation between blood and feather Hg isotopic values for skua chicks, with similar δ²⁰²Hg and Δ¹⁹⁹Hg values in the two tissues (mean difference: −0.01 ± 0.25 ‰ and −0.05 ± 0.12 ‰, respectively). Since blood and body feathers of chicks integrate the same temporal window of Hg exposure, this suggests that δ²⁰²Hg and Δ¹⁹⁹Hg values can be directly compared without any correction factors within and between avian groups. Conversely, penguin adults show higher δ²⁰²Hg and Δ¹⁹⁹Hg values in feathers than in blood (mean differences: 0.28 ± 0.19‰ and 0.25 ± 0.13‰), most likely due to tissue-specific Hg temporal integration. Since feathers integrate long-term (i.e., the intermoult period) Hg accumulation, whereas blood reflects short-term (i.e., seasonal) Hg exposure in adult birds, the two tissues provide complementary information on trophic ecology at different time scales.

中文翻译：

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海鸟组织作为汞同位素调查的有效生物监测工具：使用小鸡和成年动物的血液和羽毛的影响

血液和羽毛是环境生物监测研究中最具针对性的两个鸟类组织，血液和身体羽毛中的汞（Hg）浓度分别反映了短期和长期的Hg暴露。在这项工作中，我们调查如何汞同位素组合物（例如，Δ ²⁰² Hg和Δ ¹⁹⁹汞柱）的血液和羽毛从任海鸟小鸡（贼鸥，Ñ = 40）或成人（企鹅，Ñ = 62）可以准确地提供信息暴露于海洋生态系统中的汞。我们的结果表明对于鸥雏鸡血液和羽毛汞同位素值之间的强相关性，与同类δ ²⁰² Hg和Δ ¹⁹⁹两种组织中的Hg值（均值分别为-0.01±0.25‰和-0.05±0.12‰）。由于雏鸡的血液和体羽整合汞暴露的相同的时间窗口，这表明δ ²⁰² Hg和Δ ¹⁹⁹汞柱的值可以在不中和禽组之间的任何校正因子直接进行比较。相反，企鹅成人表现出较高的δ ²⁰² Hg和Δ ¹⁹⁹羽毛中的Hg值高于血液中的Hg值（均值差异：0.28±0.19‰和0.25±0.13‰），最有可能是由于组织特异性Hg的时间整合所致。由于羽毛整合了长期（即换羽期）汞的积累，而血液反映了成年鸟类的短期（即季节性）汞暴露，因此这两种组织在不同的时间尺度上提供了营养生态学方面的补充信息。