Mercury, Cortisol, and Blood Biomarkers in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals from 2011 to 2021

This dataset represents 179 unique adult female northern elephant seals that were sampled between 2011 and 2021 during four different life history states (early breeding, late breeding, early molting, and late molting) at the Ano Nuevo colony in California, USA. Some individual seals were sampled multiple times, resulting in a total of 313 tissue samples. Tissue samples were collected from seals and quantified for total mercury (whole blood and muscle), cortisol (serum), and 10 blood biomarkers (total thyroxine, total triiodothyronine, reverse triiodothyronine, immunoglobulin E, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M, interleukin-6, interleukin-1-beta, progesterone, and estradiol).

These data support the following publication:
Peterson, S.H., Ackerman, J.T., Holser, R.R., McDonald, B.I., Costa, D.P. and Crocker, D.E., 2023. Mercury Bioaccumulation and Cortisol Interact to Influence Endocrine and Immune Biomarkers in a Free-Ranging Marine Mammal. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08974