In the Russian part of the Arctic, polar bears have the lowest levels of mercury in wool, experts AI VE from the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (GEOKHI). Vernadsky RAS. This was reported to socialbites.ca at the Ministry of Education and Science.
Researchers at GEOKHI RAS, together with their foreign colleagues, studied the total mercury concentration in a hundred wool samples collected from 87 polar bears from the Russian Arctic and Norway between 2008 and 2016. The diet of animals and its relationship to the mercury concentration in their fur were also investigated.
“We found that average mercury levels in polar bears from the Norwegian Arctic (1.99 µg/g dw) and the three Russian Arctic regions (1.33-1.75 µg/g dw) are about 25-50% of the level measured in Greenland and North America. population. While total mercury concentrations in Norwegian bears increase with the consumption of marine and more trophic (typical food in the food chain) prey, the isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen in the fur of Russian bears is not associated with changes in mercury concentrations, “Head to socialbites.ca Russian Academy of Sciences The Carbon Geochemistry Laboratory of the Institute of Geochemistry told Principal Investigator Vyacheslav Sevastyanov.
The researchers explained that concentrations of mercury in the atmosphere, surface snow and water in the Arctic vary by region or season. The higher mercury content in the Arctic Ocean compared to other oceans is due to its intake of fresh water from the Mackenzie, Ob, Yenisei, Lena and other rivers. A small part of the mercury is converted to the neurotoxic organometallic mercury cation, which causes poisoning by chemosynthetic bacteria living in freshwater (i.e. living off the energy of chemical reactions).
The impact of mercury and other pollutants such as anthropogenic on polar bears poses a major threat to the population during climate change. Therefore, if the mercury level is exceeded, bears, like humans, will experience symptoms of heavy metal poisoning – headache, respiratory disorder, abdominal pain, vomiting, etc. According to scientists, tightening control of industrial discharges into rivers will help lower mercury levels.
Source: Gazeta
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