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  • Coastal bays and coral cays: Multi-element study of Chelonia mydas forage in the Great Barrier Reef (2015-2017)

    Author(s)
    Thomas, Colette R
    Bennett, William W
    Garcia, Clement
    Simmonds, Andrew
    Honchin, Carol
    Turner, Ryan
    Hof, Christine A Madden
    Bell, Ian
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Bennett, Will W.
    Year published
    2020
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    There is increasing interest in understanding potential impacts of complex pollutant profiles to long-lived species such as the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), a threatened megaherbivore resident in north Australia. Dietary ingestion may be a key exposure route for metals in these animals and marine plants can accumulate metals at higher concentrations than the surrounding environment. We investigated concentrations of 19 metals and metalloids in C. mydas forage samples collected from a group of offshore coral cays and two coastal bays over a period of 2–3 years. Although no samples exceeded sediment quality guidelines, ...
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    There is increasing interest in understanding potential impacts of complex pollutant profiles to long-lived species such as the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), a threatened megaherbivore resident in north Australia. Dietary ingestion may be a key exposure route for metals in these animals and marine plants can accumulate metals at higher concentrations than the surrounding environment. We investigated concentrations of 19 metals and metalloids in C. mydas forage samples collected from a group of offshore coral cays and two coastal bays over a period of 2–3 years. Although no samples exceeded sediment quality guidelines, coastal forage Co, Fe, and V concentrations were up to 2-fold higher, and offshore forage Sr concentrations were ~3-fold higher, than global seagrass means. Principal Component Analysis differentiated coastal bay from coral cay forage according to patterns consistent with underlying terrigenous-type or marine carbonate-type sediment geochemistry, such that coastal bay forage was higher in Fe, Co, Mn, Cu, and Mo (and others) but forage from coral cays was higher in Sr and U. Forage from the two coastal bays was differentiated according to temporal variation in metal profiles, which may be associated with a more episodic sediment disturbance regime in one of the bays. For all study locations, some forage metal concentrations were higher than previously reported in the global literature. Our results suggest that forage metal profiles may be influenced by the presence of some metals in insoluble forms or bound to ultra-fine sediment particles adhered to forage surfaces. Metal concentrations in Great Barrier Reef forage may be present at levels higher than expected from the global seagrass literature and appear strongly influenced by underlying sediment geochemistry.
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    Journal Title
    Science of the Total Environment
    Volume
    740
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140042
    Subject
    Environmental Sciences
    Science & Technology
    Life Sciences & Biomedicine
    Environmental Sciences
    Environmental Sciences & Ecology
    Turtle diet
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/397720
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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