Total mercury levels in females and their pups of two pinnipeds
Description
Mercury (Hg) is a non-essential, globally distributed toxic metal that bioaccumulates in aquatic organisms and biomagnifies across trophic levels, posing a threat to top predators such as marine mammals. The dataset has total mercury levels of mother-pup pairs of two pinniped species, South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) and South American fur seals (Arctocephalus australis), from Isla de Lobos, Uruguay. We quantified THg in the hair of 11 O. flavescens and 46 A. australis mother-pup pairs. THg concentrations were significantly higher in O. flavescens than in A. australis for both adult females. A positive relationship between female and pup THg supported transplacental Hg transfer. In O. flavescens, pup sex significantly influenced this relationship, with males showing lower THg for a given maternal value, whereas no sex effect was detected in A. australis. Hg levels in O. flavescens pups are among the highest recorded for pinnipeds and may have immunological and developmental consequences. All procedures of animal manipulation were submitted to and approved by the Ethics Committee in Animal Experimentation of the University of the Republic (Uruguay). The fieldwork and sampling were authorized by the National Council for Aquatic Resources, Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fishing (DINARA, Uruguay) under permit No 603/2006, 572/2008 and 1022/2010.
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Steps to reproduce
The mercury levels in the data are total mercury (THg), is a way to evaluate mercury. These levels are from females and pups of two species of pinnipeds, Otaria flavescens and Arctocephalus australis, from the "Isla de Lobos" a breeding colony in Uruguay. The samples are hair and they were collected between 2006 and 2013.
Institutions
- Universidad de la Republica Uruguay Facultad de Ciencias