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Maternal transfer of mercury to songbird eggs

Overview of attention for article published in Environmental Pollution, July 2017
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Title
Maternal transfer of mercury to songbird eggs
Published in
Environmental Pollution, July 2017
DOI 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.06.099
Pubmed ID
Authors

Joshua T. Ackerman, C. Alex Hartman, Mark P. Herzog

Abstract

We evaluated the maternal transfer of mercury to eggs in songbirds, determined whether this relationship differed between songbird species, and developed equations for predicting mercury concentrations in eggs from maternal blood. We sampled blood and feathers from 44 house wren (Troglodytes aedon) and 34 tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) mothers and collected their full clutches (n = 476 eggs) within 3 days of clutch completion. Additionally, we sampled blood and feathers from 53 tree swallow mothers and randomly collected one egg from their clutches (n = 53 eggs) during mid to late incubation (6-10 days incubated) to evaluate whether the relationship varied with the timing of sampling the mother's blood. Mercury concentrations in eggs were positively correlated with mercury concentrations in maternal blood sampled at (1) the time of clutch completion for both house wrens (R(2) = 0.97) and tree swallows (R(2) = 0.97) and (2) during mid to late incubation for tree swallows (R(2) = 0.71). The relationship between mercury concentrations in eggs and maternal blood did not differ with the stage of incubation when maternal blood was sampled. Importantly, the proportion of mercury transferred from mothers to their eggs decreased substantially with increasing blood mercury concentrations in tree swallows, but increased slightly with increasing blood mercury concentrations in house wrens. Additionally, the proportion of mercury transferred to eggs at the same maternal blood mercury concentration differed between species. Specifically, tree swallow mothers transferred 17%-107% more mercury to their eggs than house wren mothers over the observed mercury concentrations in maternal blood (0.15-1.92 μg/g ww). In contrast, mercury concentrations in eggs were not correlated with those in maternal feathers and, likewise, mercury concentrations in maternal blood were not correlated with those in feathers (all R(2) < 0.01). We provide equations to translate mercury concentrations from maternal blood to eggs (and vice versa), which should facilitate comparisons among studies and help integrate toxicity benchmarks into a common tissue.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 35 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 35 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 10 29%
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 14%
Professor 2 6%
Student > Bachelor 2 6%
Researcher 2 6%
Other 6 17%
Unknown 8 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Environmental Science 10 29%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 8 23%
Medicine and Dentistry 2 6%
Nursing and Health Professions 1 3%
Unspecified 1 3%
Other 2 6%
Unknown 11 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 July 2017.
All research outputs
#16,051,091
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Pollution
#5,974
of 13,435 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#185,749
of 325,782 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Pollution
#85
of 202 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 34th percentile – i.e., 34% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 13,435 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.7. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 325,782 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 202 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.