Mercury exposure affects the reproductive success of a free-living terrestrial songbird, the Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

Geographic and Seasonal Variation in Mercury Exposure of the Declining Rusty Blackbird

“…Chronic exposure to mercury is known to reduce reproductive success in birds; however, the threshold at which reproductive success is reduced (the adverse effect level) can vary among species , Heinz et al 2009, Jackson et al 2011a. For the Common Loon, adverse effect levels for mercury are well established; a 10% reduction in fledged young was observed in adults with blood mercury concentrations at 2.0 lg g À1 (Burgess and Meyer 2008.…”

“…Methylmercury is the most bioavailable and toxic form of mercury (Wiener et al 2003); consequently, many studies investigating mercury exposure in birds have focused on fish-eating species that obtain their food from wetland or aquatic environments (Wolfe et al 2007, Scheuhammer et al 2007. Bioaccumulation of mercury also occurs in terrestrial habitats, however, and adverse effects of mercury exposure on nonpiscivorous species are increasingly apparent (Evers et al 2005, Edmonds et al 2010, Hallinger and Cristol 2011, Jackson et al 2011a, 2011b, Lane et al 2011.…”

Like mother, like offspring: maternal and offspring wound healing correlate in snakes

“…Future studies that examine species known to experience deleterious effects in response to Hg exposure [e.g. Bufo americanus, Thryothorus ludovicianus, Tachycineta bicolor and Chelydra serpentina (Bergeron et al, 2011;Hallinger et al, 2011;Jackson et al, 2011;Hopkins et al, 2013)] and that include larger sample sizes are needed to clarify the effects of Hg on wound healing and other aspects of immune function in wildlife.…”

Avian Resources of the Northern Gulf of Mexico

“…Effects have been demonstrated in both laboratory Gochfeld 2000, 2005;Spalding et al 2000a;Hoffman et al 2011) and field studies Frederick et al 1999;Jackson et al 2011). While most pollutants are anthropogenic in nature, oil and mercury also can come from natural sources.…”

“…Birds that eat large fish with the highest mercury levels are most at risk (Pinho et al 2002;Storelli et al 2002;Burger 2009;Burger et al , 2011Frederick et al 1999Frederick et al , 2004. Common Loons Burgess et al 2005;Burgess and Meyer 2008;Evers et al 2008), raptors (Albers et al 2007), and songbirds (Jackson et al 2011) are species with high mercury levels that have impaired reproduction, with possible population declines.…”