Developing tools for monitoring, and assessing impacts of, heavy metals and hexachlorobenzene in sympatric declining muskox and caribou populations in Nunavut and NWT

Muskoxen and caribou are critical subsistence species, important for food security for most communities across the Canadian Arctic and Subarctic. Recent, enigmatic, and widespread caribou declines as well as regional but severe muskox declines associated with opportunistic pathogens and non-specific infectious diseases are resulting in increased food insecurity for northern Indigenous peoples. Understanding how contaminants in wildlife affect country food safety has been a mainstay of the Northern Contaminants Program and remains an important component of understanding the impacts of contaminants on Arctic peoples. Increasingly, however, we are realizing that contaminants, through influencing immunocompetence and the health of wildlife, can also pose a risk to the cultural and physical well-being of northern communities because of the effects on wildlife population dynamics. This data set addresses the following objectives:Objective 1: Determine the current status of heavy metals (Hg, Pb, Cd) and trace elements in muskox and caribou tissues and if it poses a risk to people. As these three heavy metals are widely recognized as important Public Health concerns, we will generate new data for these metals in the Dolphin and Union caribou herd and muskoxen on Victoria Island and the adjacent mainland.Objective 2: Understand how Hg, Pb and Cd, and other trace elements like Zn, Cu, and Se may be affecting the health of a declining population of muskoxen and the Dolphin and Union caribou herd. To explore the effect of heavy metals on muskox and caribou health, we assess the associations between liver (muskox) and kidney (caribou) concentrations of Cd, Hg, and Pb, and individual health indicators for muskoxen and caribou. Trace mineral deficiency may exacerbate the effects of exposure to heavy metals. Therefore, livers and kidneys are also analyzed for trace elements such as selenium, zinc and copper.Objective 3: Determine if qiviut (muskox undercoat) and rump hair from caribou, are sensitive indicators for monitoring contaminants. Elements circulating in the bloodstream of mammals are deposited in growing hair. Objective 4: Test if Hexachlorobenze, a persistent contaminant with a high affinity for fat a delicacy for Inuit and Dene - is accumulating in the fat of caribou and muskoxen and posing a human health concern. Hexachlorobenzene is part of the 12 initial Persistent Organic Pollutants identified by the Stockholm Convention.