Content area
Full Text
A new study from the University of Alberta shows that the lichen eaten by caribou herds along the Arctic coast is being contaminated with mercury from the marine ecosystem.
The study looked at two islands in the Arctic Archipelago -Bathurst and Devon Islands -and found that where there was open water during most of the year, methylmercury concentrations in lichen were higher, with those levels being highest close to the coast and decreasing as researchers moved inland. "On Bathurst Island, which was near those open water areas, we saw really elevated concentrations and enrichment of that methylmercury over soils in just those coastal sites," said Kyra St. Pierre, a PhD candidate in the department of Biology, who was lead author on the study.
The pattern showed enrichment of close to 100 times moving inland toward the coast -strong evidence for a marine influence on those concentrations.
"On Devon Island, we saw none...