Exposure to chemical contaminants and tissue bank on seabirds from the ArcTox project in the Arctic since 2014

Thanks to an international network of more than 70 collaborators established in 2014, ARCTOX analyses blood and feather samples collected annually at more than 70 breeding sites accross the Arctic and from more than 25 seabird species, in order to: 1/ assess year-round exposure of seabirds to chemical contaminants (during both the breeding and non-breeding periods) and identify which Arctic species and/or populations are most at risk. 2/ Understand the trophic, abiotic and spatial sources of this contamination. 3/ Use seabirds as bioindicators to map the pan-Arctic distribution of mercury (Hg) in marine food webs and identify contamination hotspots and coldspots. 4/ Evaluate temporal trends in seabird contamination, at both population and pan-Arctic scales.