Stability of mercury concentrations in frozen avian blood samples.
It is unclear whether mercury concentration in wildlife tissues changes appreciably after lengthy frozen storage. To test whether such freezer-archived samples are stable, small (~10-50 μL) avian blood samples stored in capped glass capillary tubes were analyzed for total mercury concentration, and then reanalyzed after being frozen for up to 3 years. Mercury concentrations increased 6% on average over the 3 year period, but time spent frozen explained only 11% of the variation between measurements. This small amount of change suggests that archived blood samples remain useful for at least several years.
Biology Department, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA. cwramos@wm.edu
Claire W
CW
Varian-Ramos
Anne M
AM
Condon
Kelly K
KK
Hallinger
Kjarstin A
KA
Carlson-Drexler
Daniel A
DA
Cristol
D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000097:blood*; D001793:Blood Preservation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D008628:Mercury / Q000097:blood*
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008628:Mercury