Trace element concentration in whale faeces and muscle, and krill tissue, collected from the Southern Ocean

Whale muscle samples were collected from stranded and dead blue (Baleoptera musculus) and fin (Baleoptera physalus) whales in South-western Australia. Blue, fin, sperm (Physeter macrocephalus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and pygmy blue (Baleoptera musculus brevicauda) whale faecal samples were collected from coastal waters off Southern Australia by trawling 0.5 mm mesh nets over the surface waters following defecation. Four species of krill (Nyctiphanes australia, Euphausia pacifica, Meganyctiphanes norvegica), including Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) were collected from various locations worldwide.


We analysed the concentration of iron, cadmium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, phosphorus and carbon in baleen whale faeces and muscle, and krill tissue using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2014-08-25
Date (Publication)
2014-08-25

Principal investigator

Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) - Ratnarajah, Lavenia (PhD Student)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia

Collaborator

Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) - Bowie, Andrew, Dr (Associate Professor)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
ORCID ID >

Collaborator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Lannuzel, Delphine (Senior Lecturer)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia

Collaborator

Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) - Meiners, Klaus
ACE CRC, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 80
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia

Collaborator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Nicol, Steve, Prof. (Adjunct Professor)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
Purpose
To determine the elemental composition (iron, cadmium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, phosphorus, carbon) of baleen whale tissue and krill from the southern ocean.
Credit
Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC)
Credit
Australian Antarctic Division (AAD)
Credit
Australian Marine Mammal Centre
Credit
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)
Status
On going

Principal investigator

Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) - Ratnarajah, Lavenia (PhD Student)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia

Collaborator

Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) - Bowie, Andrew, Dr (Associate Professor)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
7001
Australia
ORCID ID >

Topic category
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
1997-01-01T16:34:00
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

Resource format

Title
Microsoft Excel
Date
Edition
2011
Keywords (Taxon)
  • Baleen Whale
  • Blue Whale
  • Baleoptera musculus
  • Fin Whale
  • Baleoptera physalus
  • Sperm Whale
  • Physeter macrocephalus
  • Humpback Whale
  • Megaptera novaeangliae
  • Pygmy Blue Whale
  • Baleoptera musculus brevicauda
  • Krill
  • Nyctiphanes australia
  • Euphausia pacifica
  • Meganyctiphanes norvegica
  • Antarctic krill
  • Euphausia superba
Marine Community Profile of ISO19115 v1.4 Geographic Extent Vocabulary
  • Global/Oceans | Southern Ocean
  • Continents | Antarctica
Keywords (Theme)
  • Faeces
  • Muscle
  • Tissue
Marine Community Profile of ISO19115 v1.4 Collection Methods vocabulary
  • Mass Spectrometers
  • Nets | Surface Nets
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords Version 8.0
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research
AODN Platform Vocabulary
Keywords (Theme)
  • Concentration of Iron
  • Concentration of Cadmium
  • Concentration of Manganese
  • Concentration of Cobalt
  • Concentration of Copper
  • Concentration of Zinc
  • Concentration of phosphorus
  • Concentration of Carbon

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The data described in this record are the intellectual property of the University of Tasmania through the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

Resource constraints

Linkage
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.5/au/88x31.png

License Graphic

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License


>

Website
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/

License Text

Other constraints
The citation in a list of references is: citation author name/s (year metadata published), metadata title. Citation author organisation/s. File identifier and Data accessed at (add http link).
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Supplemental Information
Manuscript in review: Ratnarajah, L., Bowie, A.R., Lannuzel, D., Meiners, K., & Nicol, S. (2014). The biogeochemical role of baleen whales and krill in Southern Ocean nutrient cycling.

Content Information

Content type
Physical measurement
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Iron

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Cadmium

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Manganese

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Cobalt

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Copper

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Zinc

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of phosphorus

Name
Milligrams per kilogram
Description
Also normalised to Carbon
Name
Concentration of Carbon

Name
Milligrams per kilogram

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • Microsoft Excel

Distributor

Principal investigator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Ratnarajah, Lavenia (PhD Student)
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
OnLine resource
DATA - Whale and krill trace element concentration [direct download]

OnLine resource
imas:ACE_LRatnarajah_Trace_element_concentration_whale_faeces_southern_ocean_GV

MAP - region of tissue collection in the Southern Ocean

OnLine resource
View and download this data through the interactive IMAS Data Portal.

Resource lineage

Statement
1. Sample collection All sample tissue and faecal matter were stored in individual 50 ml polycarbonate screw cap bottles, preserved in >70% ethanol and frozen at -20°C until analyses. 2. Analysis of the trace element concentration Samples were dried at 60°C until constant weight was attained. Subsequently they were crushed using an acid-cleaned pipette tip and shaken vigorously to homogenise the samples. Digestion of 2–100 mg subsamples were performed in acid-cleaned 15 ml Teflon® perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) vials (Savillex, Minnetonka, MN, USA) by adding 1 ml of concentrated nitric acid and 0.125 ml of hydrogen peroxide (all Ultrapure, Seastar Baseline®, Choice Analytical). The samples were then heated at 125°C for 8 hours on Teflon coated digestion hotplate, housed in a bench-top fume hood coupled with HEPA filters to ensure clean input air (Digiprep, France). Identical procedures were applied to blanks (n = 6) and to two certified referenced materials (n = 5) (DORM-3 fish protein; National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada; and NIST 1566a oyster tissue; National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA). Certified materials, blanks and samples were resuspended in 10–100 mL of 10% v:v nitric acid (Ultrapure, Seastar Baseline) and analysed by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS) (Finnigan MAT ELEMENT 1 Bremen Germany), following methods described in Cullen and Sherrell (1999) and Townsend (2000). 3. Analysis of carbon All glass- and metal-ware in contact with the carbon samples were pre-combusted at 450°C for 12 hours. Subsamples (2–100 mg) of dried faecal matter were placed in 13 mm diameter silver capsules (Sercon, Australia) and carbon content was then determined at the Central Science Laboratory, University of Tasmania, using a Thermo Finnigan EA 1112 Series Flash Elemental Analyser (estimated precision ~1%). Note, for some samples the date of collection was not recorded.
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Platform

Identifier

Code
research vessel

Metadata

Metadata identifier
c744388c-b914-4771-99e2-870bd8114e30

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Publisher

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - IMAS Data Manager

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/c744388c-b914-4771-99e2-870bd8114e30

Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2020-10-12T15:27:49
Date info (Revision)
2020-10-12T15:27:49

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3:2018
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Concentration of Cadmium Concentration of Carbon Concentration of Cobalt Concentration of Copper Concentration of Iron Concentration of Manganese Concentration of Zinc Concentration of phosphorus Faeces Muscle Tissue
AODN Platform Vocabulary
research vessel
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research
Biological Oceanography
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords Version 8.0
ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES BALEEN WHALES CARBON CRUSTACEANS EUPHAUSIIDS (KRILL) MAMMALS NUTRIENTS TRACE ELEMENTS ZOOPLANKTON
Marine Community Profile of ISO19115 v1.4 Collection Methods vocabulary
Mass Spectrometers Nets | Surface Nets

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