Non-essential trace elements, methylmercury, and organic contaminants in hunted ringed seals (Pusa hispida) from Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Ringed seals ( Pusa hispida ) are a key food resource for Inuit communities in Nunavut, Canada, thus justifying the need for regular monitoring of environmental contaminants in these animals. The primary objective of this study was to determine the current levels of some non-essential trace elements, including cadmium (Cd), total mercury (THg), and methylmercury (MeHg), and of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in ringed seals of eastern Nunavut. Selenium (Se), an essential trace element, was also included because of its strong interaction with Hg. From 2016 to 2018, 117 seals were harvested and sampled during subsistence hunts. Young of the year (YY), the most harvested and consumed age class in this study, had lower levels of muscle and liver Cd, THg, and MeHg than juveniles and adults. Se and THg were highly correlated in liver, consistent with the presence of inert Se:Hg granules. Levels of PCBs and PBDEs in blubber were in the same range as elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic. Using recent European reference values for human consumption of food products, most seals of all ages exceeded the value for liver Cd, but many less exceeded the value for muscle Cd. Using the lower Canadian reference value for THg for human consumption of fish products but based on concentrations of MeHg, the more toxic form of Hg, no muscle samples and very few liver samples exceeded this value. These observations support the continuous use of ringed seals as a safe food source for Inuit communities of eastern Nunavut. • Inuit hunters selected ringed seals that were harvested, mainly young of the year. • Selenium, ten non-essential trace elements and two organic contaminants were measured. • Young of the year had lower muscle and liver cadmium and mercury than older groups. • Levels of PCBs and PBDEs were in the same range as elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic. • Ringed seals remain a safe and nutritious food source for Inuit communities.
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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 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 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".