Mercury in Little Brown Bat (<i>Myotis lucifugus</i>) Maternity Colonies and Its Correlation with Freshwater Acidity in Nova Scotia, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Insectivorous little brown bats are exposed to elevated concentrations of mercury (Hg) through their preference for aquatic-based prey. Here we investigated spatial patterns of total Hg (THg) in fur from 10 little brown bat maternity colonies across Nova Scotia, and assessed relationships with the acidity of nearby lakes and rivers. Total Hg concentrations were measured in fur samples from 149 adult female little brown bats. Values showed significant variation among colonies (mean range 3.76-27.38 μg/g, dry weight), and 48% of individuals had Hg concentrations in excess of the 10 μg/g threshold associated with neurochemical changes in Chiroptera conspecifics (n = 26) from Virginia. Average surface water acidity parameters (pH and acid neutralization capacity) within an 8 km radius of each maternity roost showed strong negative associations with average colony fur THg concentrations. This suggests that freshwater acidity in foraging grounds explains much of the variation in average fur THg concentrations in little brown bat colonies. These findings highlight the significant role that water quality may have on Hg bioaccumulation within terrestrial species that feed on aquatic prey.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".