Have Arctic Marine Mammals Adapted to High Cadmium Levels?

摘要

Over the last two decades, many heavy metal data have become available from the Arctic regions. These data have recently been assessed as part of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (Dietz et al., 1996, 1997; Nilsson, 1997; Dietz et al., in press). Among the conclusions of this assessment is the fact that elevated cadmium levels are found in Arctic marine mammals and birds, and these levels may often be much higher than in animals from temperate regions. Within the Arctic, some of the highest cadmium levels have been found in marine mammals from the Northwest Greenland and eastern Canadian High Arctic (for example, Dietz et al., 1996a, b; Wagemann et al., 1996; Dietz et al, 1997).