Abstract
The northeastern United States receives elevated mercury (Hg) deposition from United States and global emissions, making it critical to understand the fate of Hg in watersheds with a variety of aquatic habitats and land use types, such as the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Bats are valuable and important organisms to study chronic Hg exposure, because they are at risk of sublethal effects from elevated Hg exposure. The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) of the Finger Lakes region; (2) assess whether morphometric, temporal, or spatial factors predict bat Hg concentrations; and (3) investigate the role of trophic position and diet represented by stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in explaining variations in bat Hg concentrations. We found comparable THg and MeHg concentrations to previous studies (THg range 1–45 ppm, MeHg range 0.5–38 ppm) in big brown bat fur collected throughout the Finger Lakes region. On average, MeHg made up 81% of THg in bat fur. Fifteen percent of our samples showed higher THg than a proposed toxicity threshold of 10 ppm. Together, dominant land cover and % wetland cover explained bat THg in the Finger Lakes. Trophic position (i.e., δ15N) was strongest in predicting bat THg in forests but was a weaker predictor of Hg bioaccumulation in bats from agricultural and urban areas. The range of Hg concentrations found in this study warrants further examination into the potential toxicological impacts of Hg to wildlife and the role of land use in Hg exposure to terrestrial organisms of the Finger Lakes.
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Availability of data and material
The datasets analyzed during the current study are available as electronic supplementary material.
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The code used in the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. April Davis from the New York State Department of Health for providing the samples used in this study. Thanks to Dr. Brian Hickey (River Institute, Cornwall, Canada) and Dr. Anne Secord (USFWS) for early suggestions regarding this work, as well as Dr. Vanessa Rojas (SUNY ESF) for reviewing an early draft of this project. Special thanks to Kim Sparks and the team at Cornell University who performed stable isotope analyses. Thanks to Deb Driscoll (SUNY ESF) and Trevor Massey (Finger Lakes Institute) for their assistance with total mercury and methylmercury analyses. Mark Burton (Biodiversity Research Institute) provided guidance on mapping and spatial analyses. Thanks to the reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Additional thanks to all fellow lab-mates and team members at SUNY ESF and the Finger Lakes Institute for their support.
Funding
Funding was provided by the Alumni Association Grant for student research at SUNY ESF, the Great Lakes Research Consortium internship program and SUNY ESF start-up funding to NR Razavi. This research was supported in part by the intramural research program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire Stennis accession # 1023465. The Findings and Conclusions in this publication have not been formally disseminated by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analyses were performed by AM Webster. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AM Webster, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Webster, A.M., Cleckner, L.B. & Razavi, N.R. Mercury Concentrations in Big Brown Bats (Eptesicus fuscus) of the Finger Lakes Region, New York. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 81, 1–14 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-021-00839-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-021-00839-x