Seabird transfer of nutrients and trace elements from the north water polynya to land during the mid-holocene warm period, carey islands, northwest Greenland

On sait aujourd’hui que le guano d’oiseaux marins provenant des grandes colonies nicheuses fait augmenter les teneurs en metaux-traces dans les milieux terrestres adjacents et que tous les oceans sont contamines au Hg, au Cd et autres metaux. Toutefois, l’effet du guano d’oiseaux marins dans la periode preindustrielle a rarement fait l’objet d’etudes. Nous avons utilise des isotopes stables de carbone d’azote et des analyses d’oligoelements d’une carotte de tourbe, qui represente environ 2000 ans d’accumulation de matieres organiques, pour examiner l’effet de la presence d’une colonie d’oiseaux marins qui a existe dans le nord de la baie de Baffin pendant le maximum thermique de l’Holocene (environ 8000 a 5000 ans BP) sur les oligoelements et les nutriments. Meme si les concentrations de C et de N etaient semblables a celles se trouvant dans d’autres tourbes, les donnees isotopiques ont demontre que la principale source de N, et une source mineure de C, provenaient de matieres organiques marines, indiquant ainsi que les oiseaux marins inconnus etaient des especes piscivores qui y ont reside l’ete pendant 2000 ans. Les concentrations de Cd, Br, Sr et Zn dans la tourbe etaient d’un ordre de grandeur superieur a celles des tourbieres ombrotrophes (alimentees par l’air) d’ailleurs, tandis que les concentrations de Hg et de Cu etaient semblables a celles d’autres tourbes, ce qui laisse sous-entendre des niveaux relativement bas de Hg et Cu dans le guano. Ce resultat concernant le Hg est surprenant, car il est contraire aux etudes modernes sur les oiseaux marins demontrant que le guano a considerablement augmente les concentrations de Hg dans l’environnement. Cette augmentation pourrait etre attribuable aux concentrations de Hg dans les reseaux alimentaires marins de l’Arctique lors de la periode preindustrielle, d’un ordre de grandeur inferieur aux concentrations d’aujourd’hui.

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