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Mercury Was Linked to Physiological Changes in Barnacle Goose Goslings but Not Adults

Two adult barnacle geese swimming with four goslings
Research: Physiology, Molecular biology & biochemistry

Among wild barnacle goose goslings (Branta leucopsis) breeding on Svalbard, those with more mercury in their red blood cells had lower levels of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) and several metabolites. Mercury is a toxic contaminant that accumulates in Arctic ecosystems and becomes more concentrated along food webs. 4-HNE is produced when fats in cell membranes are damaged by oxidation, so it is used as a marker of lipid oxidative damage. Adults carried more mercury in their red blood cells than goslings, but showed none of the same mercury–physiology patterns.

In the blood samples, the researchers measured mercury in erythrocytes, 4-HNE, a broad panel of small molecules involved in metabolism, and telomere length. Telomeres are protective DNA structures at chromosome ends whose length can change with age, growth and physiological stress. The study was published online on 20 July 2026 in Environmental Pollution.

More mercury did not mean more oxidative damage in the goslings

The 4-HNE result ran counter to the simple expectation that more mercury would mean more oxidative damage. The authors suggest that the goslings may have compensated by increasing antioxidant protection at these relatively low exposure levels. They interpret the lower concentrations of several metabolites as a possible sign that rapid growth was placing limits on metabolic resources. These are proposed explanations for the observed patterns, not mechanisms the study demonstrated directly.

Telomere length tended to increase with mercury in goslings, but the evidence was not strong enough for a clear relationship. The authors interpret the overall age difference as a sign that early development may be more sensitive to low environmental mercury exposure, even when adults carry higher mercury concentrations overall.

Sources and image credit

  1. Schiavinato, M., Bouwhuis, S., Bakker, W., Johnson-Gittins, E., Wesseling, S., Schupp, P., Spurgeon, D., Loonen, M. J. J. E., & van den Brink, N. (2026). Goslings, but not adults, show physiological alterations associated with mercury contamination in wild Arctic barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis). Environmental Pollution, 407, 128803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2026.128803Primary peer-reviewed open-access article first published online 20 July 2026. The study compared blood mercury with oxidative, metabolic and telomere measures in wild adult barnacle geese and goslings breeding on Svalbard and found age-dependent physiological associations in goslings.

Image: Bengt Nyman / Wikimedia Commons — two adult barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) with goslings at Vaxholm, Sweden, 2 June 2016. Representative family image relevant to the study's adult–gosling comparison; these birds were not part of the Svalbard study. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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