Availability and transfer of trace elements through Arctic terrestrial food-chains and their health implications to large Arctic wildlife (ATCAF) – ATCAF
“Ecogeochemistry in a changing Arctic – Linking trace elements in the environment to the health of the iconic pre-historic muskoxen”
The Arctic is warming rapidly, which may change the balance of essential nutrients and harmful pollutants in its ecosystems. Yet how these substances move through food chains and potentially affect wildlife health remains poorly understood. ATCAF addressed this gap by linking landscape chemistry to wildlife health, while also developing non-invasive tools to assist wildlife monitoring. Combined, this will improve surveillance and conservation efforts in these remote and sensitive ecosystems.
Understanding trace elements in a changing Arctic: new approaches to monitoring wildlife health
The Arctic is one of the fastest-changing regions on Earth. Rising temperatures and increasing human activities are altering natural chemical cycles in the environment, including the availability of trace elements. Some of these elements, such as copper, selenium, and zinc, are essential for animal health, reproduction, and survival, while others, like mercury, lead, and cadmium, can be harmful even at low levels. Understanding how these elements move through Arctic landscapes and food chains is therefore crucial for protecting wildlife.<br />When the ATCAF project began, most scientific knowledge about trace elements in the Arctic came from marine environments. In contrast, Arctic land ecosystems — and especially how soil chemistry influences plants, animals, and their health — were largely unexplored. At the same time, climate change and long-range pollution were raising concerns about how well Arctic wildlife could cope with these new environmental pressures.<br />ATCAF set out to fill this gap by studying trace elements from the ground up: from soils and plants, through insects and spiders, and ultimately into large herbivores such as muskoxen. A key challenge was to move beyond simply mapping where elements occur, and instead understand how natural geological differences translate into real biological effects, including impacts on animal health and population dynamics.<br />A major objective of the project was also to develop practical, non-invasive tools for monitoring wildlife health in remote Arctic regions. ATCAF explored whether qiviut — the soft wool of muskoxen — could be used to track long-term exposure to essential and harmful elements without the need to capture or harm animals. By linking chemical measurements in the environment to biological signals in animals, the project aimed to improve early detection of nutritional stress or contamination. As muskoxen shed their wool naturally, the end goal was to be able to collect wool directly from the ground – without interacting or interfering with the animals – and analyze the chemistry in the hair which would then provide information on the overall health status of the animal. <br />Overall, ATCAF sought to build a clearer picture of how Arctic landscapes, climate change, and trace elements interact, and how these interactions affect wildlife health. Its goal was not only to advance scientific knowledge, but also to support better monitoring, conservation, and management of Arctic ecosystems that are experiencing rapid environmental change and increased pressure.
The ATCAF project combined field sampling (as well as archived samples), laboratory analyses, and multi-scale statistical approaches to investigate how essential and non-essential trace elements move through Arctic terrestrial food webs and how these patterns relate to the health of wildlife on individual and population level.
The methodological framework of the ATCAF project was organized across four integrated and parallel tasks:
Task 1 – Ecogeochemistry & the landscape
Task 2 – Ecogeochemistry & the food-chain
Task 3 – Ecogeochemistry & the individual
Task 4 – Ecogeochemistry & the isotopes
Targeted samples included soil, vegetation, insects, spiders, as well a range of samples (such as wool, blood, feces) from a large Arctic herbivore – the muskoxen (Ovibos moscahtus). Both wild (Greenland and Norway) and captive (three zoos’ in Sweden) muskoxen were included in the study.
Primary analytical techniques used were acid digestions/mineralization in a clean room environment and subsequent TQ-ICP-MS analysis, but other analytical techniques such as blood serum analysis, IRMS, DMA and MC-ICP-MS were also applied.
This project set out to understand how the natural chemistry of Arctic landscapes influences the health of wildlife, focusing on muskoxen – a prehistoric survivor and iconic species of the Arctic tundra. In particular, we explored whether qiviut, the soft wool that muskoxen shed naturally once per year, could be used as a gentle, non-invasive way to monitor animal health over long periods of time.
Early studies from the project showed that the levels of certain trace elements in qiviut, such as selenium, copper, and molybdenum, are linked to how muskox populations are doing. At the same time, we found that these elements vary naturally across soils and plants in different areas, and that this variation moves through the food chain. In other words, what is in the ground ultimately affects what ends up in animals, and may play a role in their health. Some elements appeared beneficial for population growth, while others, like lead and arsenic, were associated with poorer outcomes. However, these studies only looked at broad population patterns and could not tell us how well qiviut reflects the health of individual animals.
To address this, we therefore examined how trace elements are distributed inside the bodies of muskoxen, across organs such as liver, blood, and muscle. While we were able to measure these elements in all tissues, qiviut did not closely match the chemical signals found in internal organs. This may partly be due to the small number of animals studied, but it showed that more work is needed before qiviut can be fully trusted as an individual health indicator.
Building on this, we therefore compared trace elements in qiviut, blood, and feces with biological markers linked to stress, inflammation, and overall condition, to see if there is indeed a link between trace element profiles and individual health. Our early results consistently highlighted selenium as in important element and suggest that selenium levels in qiviut have been declining over time and are approaching levels that may be concerning. Although body condition has remained fairly stable, stress-related hormones appeared elevated, indicating that these animals may be experiencing a decline in health, and that this may somehow be linked to the selenium levels. This research is still ongoing.
Finally, we explored whether subtle differences in copper chemistry (the isotopic ratio) in blood could serve as a new indicator of wildlife health. Preliminary results suggest clear differences between captive and wild muskoxen, and a possible link to stress levels, but more analysis is needed.
Taken together, these results provide a clearer picture of how natural landscape chemistry influences what animals eat, what builds up in their bodies, and how this may affect their health. While our work will continue, this project has highlighted both the promise and the potential limits of using non-invasive tools like qiviut to monitor Arctic wildlife such as muskoxen.
A key strength of the ATCAF-project lies in its integrated approach to understand Arctic ecosystems. Rather than studying environmental chemistry or wildlife health in isolation, ATCAF connected landscape geology, food-chain processes, and animal health into a single, coherent framework. This cross-scale perspective made it possible to move beyond simply describing where trace elements occur, toward understanding how natural chemical differences in the environment shape biological exposure, population performance, and long-term ecosystem functioning.
An outstanding feature of ATCAF was its focus on Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, which have historically received far less attention than Arctic marine systems. By generating new data from soils, plants, invertebrates, and large herbivores, the project filled a major knowledge gap and provided a reference point for future studies in land-based Arctic environments. The work also highlighted that essential and harmful elements behave very differently in nature, emphasizing that nutritional limitations and toxic risks must be assessed together rather than in isolation.
Another major innovation was the development and evaluation of non-invasive monitoring tools. ATCAF demonstrated that qiviut (the wool of muskoxen) can capture long-term, population-level patterns in trace element exposure. This offers a promising alternative to invasive sampling, which is often ethically, logistically, and culturally challenging in remote Arctic regions. While the project also identified limitations in linking wool chemistry directly to individual health, recognizing these boundaries represents an important step toward more realistic and robust monitoring strategies.
Looking ahead, ATCAF opened several important perspectives. Future research can build on its framework by improving understanding of how trace elements are processed within animal bodies, how health status influences chemical signals, and how climate-driven changes may alter element availability over time. Expanding this approach to other Arctic species and regions would allow broader assessments of ecosystem health and resilience.
Overall, ATCAF provides both new knowledge and practical tools that support earlier detection of environmental stress and better-informed conservation and management of Arctic terrestrial ecosystems.
Winter, R.M., van Beest, F.M., Schmidt, N.M., Hansson, S.V.* Tissue-specific trace element distribution in wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) from Dovrefjell, Norway. (ACCEPTED/In press) Biological Trace Element Research
Winter, R., Åsberg, A., Ericsson, M., Jelk, L., Larsson, J., Hansson, S. V.* 2025. Do or Die: The need for improved knowledge of the current and predicted status of the Swedish muskox (Ovibos moschatus) population. 2025. Polar Research
Dickinson, E.R.*, Mosbacher, J.B., Arnison, C., Beckmen, K., Côté, S.D., Di Francesco, J., Hansson, S.V., Jahromi, E.Z., Kinniburgh, D.W., Le Roux, G., Leclerc, L.-M., Mavrot, F., Schmidt, N.M., Suitor, M.J., Taillon, J., Tomaselli, M. and Kutz, S.J. 2025. Qiviut Trace and Macro Element Profile Reflects Muskox Population Trends. Ecol Evol, 15: e71020. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71020
van Beest, F. M.*, Schmidt, N. M., Stewart, L., Hansen, L. H., Michelsen, A., Mosbacher, J. B., Gilbert, H., Le Roux, G., and Hansson, S. V. 2023. «Geochemical Landscapes as Drivers of Wildlife Reproductive Success: Insights from a High-Arctic Ecosystem« Science of The Total Environment (903), p. 166567.
Mosbacher J. B., Desforges J.-P., Michelsen A., Hansson S. V., Stelvig M., Eulaers I., Sonne C., Dietz R., Jenssen B. M., Ciesielski T. M., Lierhagen S., Flaten T. P., Le Roux G., Aggerbeck M. R., Schmidt N. M.* 2022. Hair mineral levels as indicator of wildlife demographics? — a pilot study of muskoxen. Polar Research, 41.
The Arctic is one of the planet’s most rapidly warming regions, which will likely alter the biogeochemical processes involved in the bioavailability and transfer of essential (i.e. nutrients such as Cu, Zn, Se) and non-essential (i.e. contaminants such as Pb, Cd, Hg) trace elements. Simultaneously, human presence in the region is increasing due to an expansion of on- and off-shore exploration/extraction of oils & minerals all with a risk of adverse environmental effects. Yet most knowledge about the chemical and biological processes involved in the transfer of trace elements through Arctic food-chains is based on marine and aquatic systems, whereas the Arctic terrestrial ecosystem in general, and Arctic terrestrial food-chains specifically, are vastly unexplored. A better understanding of the cycling of such elements is thus crucial as it may have wide ranging implications on trophic interactions, terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem functioning as a whole.
The ATCAF-project will fill this knowledge gap by targeting the environment – biota – trace element interaction in a high-Arctic terrestrial landscape, while also taking an original approach by directly linking trace elements concentrations in large wildlife to individual and population health. Specifically, the aim is to quantify the above-ground/below-ground linkages of trace elements in a high-Arctic terrestrial ecosystem (i.e. Zackenberg, East Greenland), estimate the transfer efficiency within local food-chains (i.e. in soil, vegetation, prey- & predator-invertebrate insects, herbivores and carnivores), and assess the potential health effects of these elements within large Arctic wildlife (i.e. muskoxen and Arctic fox).
To reach this aim, ATCAF will be organized in four interlinked work tasks:
Task 1) Ecogeochemistry & the landscape: Mapping of availability and spatial variation in essential and non-essential elements across the soils and vegetation of an Arctic landscape
Task 2) Ecogeochemistry & the food-chains: Transfer efficiency of essential- and non-essential elements through Arctic terrestrial food-chains
Task 3) Ecogeochemistry & the individual: Trace element distribution within individuals and the potential link between wildlife hair and population health
Task 4) Ecogeochemistry and the isotopes: Isotopic composition in blood samples from large Arctic wildlife as diagnostic tool of health
By studying the accumulation of contaminants in Arctic terrestrial food-chains in tandem with the uptake of essential elements, ATCAF will provide much needed information on their combined effects on the health and fitness of local biota. Uniting empirical data and predictive modelling approaches, ATCAF will therefore deliver 1) maps showing spatial variation in the trace element composition of different soil and vegetation types in a high-Arctic terrestrial ecosystem, 2) quantitative values of above-ground/below-ground linkages and transfer efficiency of trace elements between trophic levels in the studied system 3) an extensive assessment of within individual trace element distribution and a novel analytical protocol using wildlife hair as a non-invasive long-term bioindicator of individual- and population health, 4) a novel analytical protocol using isotopic composition of blood as a diagnostic tool for wildlife health (e.g. neoplasia, inflammatory status, body condition, pathogen).
Combined, the successful outcome of the ATCAF-project will revolutionize science-based monitoring of wildlife health and population trends in systems under pressure. This, in turn, will promote well-informed conservation strategies, wildlife monitoring and ecosystem management with additional socioeconomic and cultural values as it pertains to local populations depending on this wildlife and the ecosystem for their livelihood.
Project coordination
Sophia HANSSON (LABORATOIRE ECOLOGIE FONCTIONNELLE ET ENVIRONNEMENT)
The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.
Partnership
LEFE LABORATOIRE ECOLOGIE FONCTIONNELLE ET ENVIRONNEMENT
AU Aarhus University / Department of Bioscience
Help of the ANR 289,900 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project:
September 2021
- 36 Months
