Geographic distribution of selected elements in the livers of polar bears from Greenland, Canada and the United States

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2008

Publication Title

Environmental Pollution

Volume

153

Issue

3

First Page

618

Keywords

Arctic, Contaminants, Metals, Regional differences, Ursus maritimus

Last Page

626

Abstract

To assess geographic distributions of elements in the Arctic we compared essential and non-essential elements in the livers of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) collected from five regions within Canada in 2002, in Alaska between 1994 and 1999 and from the northwest and east coasts of Greenland between 1988 and 2000. As, Hg, Pb and Se varied with age, and Co and Zn with gender, which limited spatial comparisons across all populations to Cd, which was highest in Greenland bears. Collectively, geographic relationships appeared similar to past studies with little change in concentration over time in Canada and Greenland for most elements; Hg and Se were higher in some Canadian populations in 2002 as compared to 1982 and 1984. Concentrations of most elements in the polar bears did not exceed toxicity thresholds, although Cd and Hg exceeded levels correlated with the formation of hepatic lesions in laboratory animals. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOI

10.1016/j.envpol.2007.09.006

ISSN

02697491

PubMed ID

17959286

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