(Table 1) Mercury concentrations and carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios in 14 marine species from West Greenland sampled between 2003-2004

Total mercury (THg), methylmercury (MeHg) and stable isotopes of nitrogen (d15N) and carbon (d13C) were measured in three invertebrate, five fish, three seabird and three marine mammal species of central West Greenland to investigate trophic transfer of mercury in this Arctic marine food web. The fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rigét, Frank F, Möller, P, Dietz, Rune, Nielsen, Torkel Gissel, Asmund, Gert, Strand, Jakob, Larsen, Martin M, Hobson, Keith A
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2007
Subjects:
Comment
DATE/TIME
Date/time end
Group
International Polar Year (2007-2008)
IPY
Length
maximal
minimal
Mass
minimum
Mercury
standard deviation
Method comment
Methylmercury
Percentage
Sample amount
Sample type
Species
common name
Trophic level description
W_Greenland_area2
West Greenland
Whale watching
WHW
δ13C
δ15N
Greenland
International Polar Year
Online Access:https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.819064
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.819064
Description
Summary:Total mercury (THg), methylmercury (MeHg) and stable isotopes of nitrogen (d15N) and carbon (d13C) were measured in three invertebrate, five fish, three seabird and three marine mammal species of central West Greenland to investigate trophic transfer of mercury in this Arctic marine food web. The food web magnification factor (FWMF) estimated as the slope of the regression between the natural logarithm of THg or MeHg concentrations (mg/kg dw) and tissue d15N (per mil) was estimated to 0.183 (SE = 0.052) for THg and 0.339 (SE = 0.075) for MeHg. The FWMFs were not only comparable with those reported for other Arctic marine food webs but also with quite different food webs such as freshwater lakes in the sub-Arctic, East Africa and Papua New Guinea. This suggests similar mechanisms of mercury assimilation and isotopic (d15N) discrimination among a broad range of aquatic taxa and underlines the possibility of broad ecosystem comparisons using the combined contaminant and stable isotope approach.

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