Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine.
Mercury and methylmercury were measured in seawater and biota collected from the outer Bay of Fundy to better document mercury bioaccumulation in a temperate marine food web. The size of an organism, together with δ13 C and δ15 N isotopes, were measured to interpret mercury levels in biota ranging i...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c079823b99e640c8bc7aa1145bbbf403 2023-05-15T15:13:42+02:00 Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. Gareth Harding John Dalziel Peter Vass 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 https://doaj.org/article/c079823b99e640c8bc7aa1145bbbf403 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6047777?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 https://doaj.org/article/c079823b99e640c8bc7aa1145bbbf403 PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 7, p e0197220 (2018) Medicine R Science Q article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 2022-12-31T12:23:48Z Mercury and methylmercury were measured in seawater and biota collected from the outer Bay of Fundy to better document mercury bioaccumulation in a temperate marine food web. The size of an organism, together with δ13 C and δ15 N isotopes, were measured to interpret mercury levels in biota ranging in size from microplankton (25μm) to swordfish, dolphins and whales. Levels of mercury in seawater were no different with depth and not elevated relative to upstream sources. The δ13 C values of primary producers were found to be inadequate to specify the original energy source of various faunas, however, there was no reason to separate the food web into benthic, demersal and pelagic food chains because phytoplankton has been documented to almost exclusively fuel the ecosystem. The apparent abrupt increase in mercury content from "seawater" to phytoplankton, on a wet weight basis, can be explained from an environmental volume basis by the exponential increase in surface area of smaller particles included in "seawater" determinations. This physical sorption process may be important up to the macroplankton size category dominated by copepods according to the calculated biomagnification factors (BMF). The rapid increase in methylmercury concentration, relative to the total mercury, between the predominantly phytoplankton (<125μm) and the zooplankton categories is likely augmented by gut microbe methylation. Further up the food chain, trophic transfer of methylmercury dominates resulting in biomagnification factors greater than 10 in swordfish, Atlantic bluefin tuna, harbour porpoise, Atlantic white-sided dolphin and common thresher shark. The biomagnification power of the northern Gulf of Maine ecosystem is remarkably similar to that measured in tropical, subtropical, other temperate and arctic oceanic ecozones. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Harbour porpoise Phytoplankton Zooplankton Copepods Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS ONE 13 7 e0197220 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Gareth Harding John Dalziel Peter Vass Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Mercury and methylmercury were measured in seawater and biota collected from the outer Bay of Fundy to better document mercury bioaccumulation in a temperate marine food web. The size of an organism, together with δ13 C and δ15 N isotopes, were measured to interpret mercury levels in biota ranging in size from microplankton (25μm) to swordfish, dolphins and whales. Levels of mercury in seawater were no different with depth and not elevated relative to upstream sources. The δ13 C values of primary producers were found to be inadequate to specify the original energy source of various faunas, however, there was no reason to separate the food web into benthic, demersal and pelagic food chains because phytoplankton has been documented to almost exclusively fuel the ecosystem. The apparent abrupt increase in mercury content from "seawater" to phytoplankton, on a wet weight basis, can be explained from an environmental volume basis by the exponential increase in surface area of smaller particles included in "seawater" determinations. This physical sorption process may be important up to the macroplankton size category dominated by copepods according to the calculated biomagnification factors (BMF). The rapid increase in methylmercury concentration, relative to the total mercury, between the predominantly phytoplankton (<125μm) and the zooplankton categories is likely augmented by gut microbe methylation. Further up the food chain, trophic transfer of methylmercury dominates resulting in biomagnification factors greater than 10 in swordfish, Atlantic bluefin tuna, harbour porpoise, Atlantic white-sided dolphin and common thresher shark. The biomagnification power of the northern Gulf of Maine ecosystem is remarkably similar to that measured in tropical, subtropical, other temperate and arctic oceanic ecozones. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gareth Harding John Dalziel Peter Vass |
author_facet |
Gareth Harding John Dalziel Peter Vass |
author_sort |
Gareth Harding |
title |
Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. |
title_short |
Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. |
title_full |
Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. |
title_fullStr |
Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine. |
title_sort |
bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer bay of fundy, gulf of maine. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 https://doaj.org/article/c079823b99e640c8bc7aa1145bbbf403 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Harbour porpoise Phytoplankton Zooplankton Copepods |
genre_facet |
Arctic Harbour porpoise Phytoplankton Zooplankton Copepods |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 7, p e0197220 (2018) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6047777?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 https://doaj.org/article/c079823b99e640c8bc7aa1145bbbf403 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
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13 |
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7 |
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