Inter- and intraspecific variation in mercury bioaccumulation by snakes inhabiting a contaminated river floodplain

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Volumn 32, Issue 5, 2013, Pages 1178-1186

  Drewett, David V V ^a   Willson, John D ^a,b   Cristol, Daniel A ^c   Chin, Stephanie Y ^a   Hopkins, William A ^a  

^a VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS   (United States)

^c Dept of Economics and Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William and Mary   (United States)

Author keywords

Heavy metals; Pollution; Reptiles; Stable isotopes; Trophic position

Indexed keywords

INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION; MEAN CONCENTRATIONS; MERCURY BIOACCUMULATION; NITROGEN STABLE ISOTOPE; REPTILES; SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES; STABLE ISOTOPES; TROPHIC POSITION;

BIOACCUMULATION; HEAVY METALS; ISOTOPES; MERCURY (METAL); POLLUTION; RATS; RIVER POLLUTION; TISSUE;

BIOCHEMISTRY;

MERCURY;

BIOACCUMULATION; BODY SIZE; DIET; FLOODPLAIN; HEAVY METAL; INTERSPECIFIC VARIATION; INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION; ONTOGENY; SNAKE; STABLE ISOTOPE;

ANIMAL TISSUE; ARTICLE; BIOACCUMULATION; BLOOD LEVEL; CONTROLLED STUDY; ELAPHE OBSOLETA; ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; FEMALE; FLOODPLAIN; INTERSPECIFIC VARIATION; INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION; ISOTOPE ANALYSIS; MALE; NERODIA SIPEDON; NONHUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; REGINA SEPTEMVITTATA; SEX DIFFERENCE; SNAKE; THAMNOPHIS SIRTALIS; WATER CONTAMINATION;

ANIMALS; ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; FEMALE; MALE; MERCURY; RIVERS; SNAKES; SPECIES SPECIFICITY; VIRGINIA; WATER POLLUTANTS, CHEMICAL;

SOUTH RIVER [VIRGINIA]; UNITED STATES; VIRGINIA;

NERODIA SIPEDON; PANTHEROPHIS; PANTHEROPHIS OBSOLETUS; RATTUS; REGINA SEPTEMVITTATA; REPTILIA; SERPENTES; THAMNOPHIS; THAMNOPHIS SIRTALIS;

EID: 84876409538     PISSN: 07307268     EISSN: 15528618     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/etc.2157     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Todd BD, Willson JD, Gibbons JW. 2010. The global status of reptiles and causes of their decline. In Donald W, Sparling GL, Bishop CA, Krest SK, eds, Ecotoxicology of Amphibians and Reptiles, 2nd ed. Taylor & Francis, New York, NY, USA, pp 47-67.
2. Godley JS. 1980. Foraging ecology of the striped swamp snake, Regina alleni, in southern Florida. Ecol Monogr 50:411-436.
3. Hopkins WA. 2000. Reptile toxicology: Challenges and opportunities on the last frontier in vertebrate ecotoxicology. Environ Toxicol Chem 19:2391-2393.
4. Reed RN, Shine R. 2002. Lying in wait for extinction: Ecological correlates of conservation status among Australian elapid snakes. Conserv Biol 16:451-461.
5. Campbell KR, Campbell TS. 2001. The accumulation and effects of environmental contaminants on snakes: A review. Environ Monit Assess 70:253-301.
6. Gibbons JW, Scott DE, Ryan TJ, Buhlmann KA, Tuberville TD, Metts BS, Greene JL, Mills T, Leiden Y, Poppy S, Winne CT. 2000. The global decline of reptiles, déjà vu amphibians. Bioscience 50:653-666.
7. Bergeron CM, Bodinof CM, Unrine JM, Hopkins WA. 2010. Mercury accumulation along a contamination gradient and nondestructive indices of bioaccumulation in amphibians. Environ Toxicol Chem 29:980-988.
8. Scheulhammer AM, Meyer MW, Sandheinrich MB, Murray MW. 2007. Effects of environmental methylmercury on the health of wild birds, mammals, and fish. Ambio 36:12-18.
9. Smith CM, Tripp LJ. 2005. Mercury policy and science in northeastern North America: The mercury action plan of the New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers. Ecotoxicology 14:19-35.
10. Evers DC, Han YJ, Driscoll CT, Kamman NC, Goodale MW, Lambert KF, Holsen TM, Chen CY, Clair TA, Butler T. 2007. Identification and evaluation of biological hotspots of mercury in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. Bioscience 57:29-43.
11. Wolfe MF, Schwarzbach S, Sulaiman RA. 1998. Effects of mercury on wildlife: A comprehensive review. Environ Toxicol Chem 17:146-160.
12. Bauerle B, Spencer DL, Wheeler W. 1975. Use of snakes as a pollution indicator species. Copeia 2:366-368.
13. Wylie GD, Hothem RL, Bergen DR, Martin LL, Taylor RJ, Brussee BE. 2009. Metals and trace elements in giant garter snakes (Thamnophis gigas) from the Sacramento Valley, California, USA. Arch Environ Contamin Toxicol 56:577-587.
14. Beaupre SJ, Douglas LE. 2009. Snakes as indicators and monitors of ecosystem properties. In Mullin SJ, Seigel RA, eds, Snakes: Ecology and Conservation. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA, pp 244-261.
15. Arnold SJ. 1993. Foraging theory and prey-size-predator-size relations in snakes. In Seigel RA, Collins JT, eds, Snakes: Ecology and Behavior. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, USA, pp 87-112.
16. Campbell KR, Campbell TS. 2002. A logical starting point for developing priorities for lizard and snake ecotoxicology: A review of available data. Environ Toxicol Chem 21:894-898.
17. Carter LJ. 1977. Chemical plants leave unexpected legacy for two Virginia rivers. Sci Total Environ 198:1015-1020.
18. Tom KR, Newman MC, Schmerfeld J. 2010. Modeling mercury biomagnification (South River, Virginia, USA) to inform river management decision making. Environ Toxicol Chem 29:1013-1020.
19. Southworth GR, Peterson MJ, Bogle MA. 2004. Bioaccumulation factors for mercury in stream fish. Environ Pract 6:135-143.
20. Bergeron CM, Husak JF, Unrine JM, Romanek CS, Hopkins WA. 2007. Influence of feeding ecology on blood mercury concentrations in four species of turtles. Environ Toxicol Chem 26:1733-1741.
21. Jackson AK, Evers DC, Folsom SB, Condon AM, Diener J, Goodrick LF, McGann AJ, Schmerfeld J, Cristol DA. 2011. Mercury exposure in terrestrial birds far downstream of an historical point source. Environ Pollut 159:3302-3308.
22. Ernst CH, Ernst EM. 2003. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
23. Hopkins WA, Roe JH, Snodgrass JW, Jackson BP, Kling DE, Rowe CL, Congdon JD. 2001. Nondestructive indices of trace element exposure in squamate reptiles. Environ Pollut 115:1-7.
24. Burger J, Campbell KR, Campbell TS, Shukla T, Jeitner C, Gochfeld M. 2005. Use of skin and blood as nonlethal indicators of heavy metal contamination in northern water snakes (Nerodia sipedon). Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 49:232-238.
25. Rainwater TR, Reynolds KD, Canas JE, Cobb GP, Anderson TA, McMurry ST, Smith PN. 2005. Organochlorine pesticides and mercury in cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) from northeastern Texas. Environ Toxicol Chem 24:665-673.
26. Willson JD, Winne CT, Pilgrim MA, Romanek CS, Gibbons JW. 2010. Seasonal variation in terrestrial resource subsidies influences trophic niche width and overlap in two aquatic snake species: A stable isotope approach. Oikos 119:1161-1171.
27. Winne CT, Willson JD, Andrews KM, Reed RN. 2006. Efficacy of marking snakes with disposable medical cautery units. Herpetol Rev 37:52-54.
28. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1998. Method 7473: Mercury in solids and solutions by thermal decomposition, amalgamation, and atomic absorption spectrometry. Washington, DC.
29. Bearhop S, Adams CE, Waldron S, Fuller RA, Macleod H. 2004. Determining trophic niche width: A novel approach using stable isotope analysis. J Anim Ecol 73:1007-1012.
30. Chumchal MM, Rainwater TR, Osborn SC, Roberts AP, Abel MT, Cobb GP, Smith PN, Bailey FC. 2011. Mercury speciation and biomagnifications in the food web of Caddo Lake (Texas/Louisiana, USA), a subtropical freshwater ecosystem. Environ Toxicol Chem 30:1153-1162.
31. Newman MC, Xu X, Condon A, Liang L. 2011. Floodplain methylmercury biomagnification factor higher than that of the contiguous river (South River, Virginia USA). Environ Pollut 159:2840-2844.
32. Campbell KR, Campbell TS, Burger J. 2005. Heavy metal concentrations in northern water snakes (Nerodia sipedon) from East Fork Poplar Creek and the Little River, East Tennessee, USA. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 49:239-248.
33. Murray SM, Gaines KF, Novak JM, Gochfeld M, Burger J. 2010. DNA double-strand breakage as an endpoint to examine metal and radionuclide exposure effects to water snakes on a nuclear industrial site. Hum Ecol Risk Assess 16:282-300.
34. Bergeron CM, Bodinof CM, Unrine JM, Hopkins WA. 2010. Bioaccumulation and maternal transfer of mercury and selenium in amphibians. Environ Toxicol Chem 29:989-997.
35. Cristol DA, Brasso RL, Condon AM, Fovargue RE, Friedman SL, Hallinger KK, Monroe A, White AE. 2008. The movement of aquatic mercury through terrestrial food webs. Science 320:335.
36. Clark DR, Bickham JW, Baker DL, Cowman DF. 2000. Environmental contaminants in Texas, USA, wetland reptiles: Evaluation using blood samples. Environ Toxicol Chem 19:2259-2265.
37. Jagoe CH, Arnold-Hill B, Yanochko GM, Winger PV, Brisbin IL. 1998. Mercury in alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) in the southeastern United States. Sci Total Environ 213:255-262.
38. Simonin HA, Loukmas JJ, Skinner LC, Roy KA. 2008. Lake variability: Key factors controlling mercury concentrations in New York State fish. Environ Pollut 154:107-115.
39. King RB. 1993. Microgeographic, historical, and size-correlated variation in water snake diet composition. J Herpetol 27:90-94.
40. Mueller KW, Serdar DM. 2002. Total mercury concentrations among fish and crayfish inhabiting different trophic levels in Lake Whatcom, Washington. J Freshw Ecol 17:621-633.
41. Suchanek TH, Eagles-Smith CA, Slotton DG, Harner EJ, Colwell EA, Anderson NL, Mullen LH, Flanders JR, Adam DP, McElroy KJ. 2008. Spatiotemporal trends in fish mercury from a mine-dominated ecosystem: Clear Lake, California. Ecol Appl 18:177-195.
42. Burger J, Campbell KR, Campbell TS, Shukla T, Dixon C, Gochfeld M. 2005. Use of central stonerollers (Cyprinidae: Campostoma anomalum) from Tennessee as a bioindicator of metal contamination. Environ Monit Assess 110:171-184.
43. Meyers-Schöne L, Walton BT. 1994. Turtles as monitors of chemical contaminants in the environment. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol 135:93-153.
44. Hopkins WA, Roe JH, Snodgrass JW, Staub BP, Jackson BP, Congdon JD. 2002. Effects of chronic dietary exposure to trace elements on banded water snakes (Nerodia fasciata). Environ Toxicol Chem 21:906-913.
45. Cocking D, Hayes R, King ML, Rohrer MJ, Thomas R, Ward D. 1991. Compartmentalization of mercury in biotic components of terrestrial flood-plain ecosystems adjacent to the South River at Waynesboro, VA. Water Air Soil Pollut 57-8:159-170.