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...
Published in: | PLOS ONE |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047777/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30011281 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6047777 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6047777 2023-05-15T15:12:11+02:00 Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine Harding, Gareth Dalziel, John Vass, Peter 2018-07-16 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047777/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30011281 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047777/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30011281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 © 2018 Harding et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 2018-07-29T00:15:22Z 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. Text Arctic Harbour porpoise Phytoplankton Zooplankton Copepods PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic PLOS ONE 13 7 e0197220 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Article |
spellingShingle |
Research Article Harding, Gareth Dalziel, John Vass, Peter Bioaccumulation of methylmercury within the marine food web of the outer Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
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 |
Text |
author |
Harding, Gareth Dalziel, John Vass, Peter |
author_facet |
Harding, Gareth Dalziel, John Vass, Peter |
author_sort |
Harding, Gareth |
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 |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047777/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30011281 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Harbour porpoise Phytoplankton Zooplankton Copepods |
genre_facet |
Arctic Harbour porpoise Phytoplankton Zooplankton Copepods |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047777/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30011281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 |
op_rights |
© 2018 Harding et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e0197220 |
_version_ |
1766342912456523776 |