Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

SignificanceMercury (Hg) causes deleterious effects on wildlife and human health.Even though we know that Hg is heterogeneously distributed, its spatial distribution at a very large scale in the marine biota remains poorly documented.Seabirds are commonly used to study the health of marine environments.In this study, we used seabirds as bioindicators of Hg presence through the North-Atlantic Arctic.Our maps highlight a gradient in Hg concentrations, with concentrations increasing from the Barents Sea to the East coast of Canada.This work is of tremendous importance for Arctic communities who rely on the marine environment but also for international initiatives such as the Minamata Convention that actively work for decreasing Hg emissions worldwide.