Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon.
Recent studies of Arctic and Subarctic environments have detected rising levels of natural and anthropogenic mercury (Hg), putting northern residents at risk for Hg exposure. Within lake sediments, Hg can be methylated by certain species of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria (SRB), a subset of Sulfur-Metabol...
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University of Northern British Columbia
2015
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ftunbcolumbiadc:oai:unbc.arcabc.ca:unbc_16972 2024-05-19T07:36:17+00:00 Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. Joe-Strack, Jocelyn Anne (Author) Petticrew, Ellen L. (Thesis advisor) University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution) 2015 electronic Number of pages in document: 142 https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc:16972/datastream/PDF/download https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A16972 https://doi.org/10.24124/2015/bpgub1076 English eng University of Northern British Columbia Copyright retained by the author. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Lake sediments -- Mercury content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Sediments (Geology) -- Heavy metal content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Mercury -- Methylation Sulfur bacteria GB1630.Y8 J64 2015 Text thesis 2015 ftunbcolumbiadc https://doi.org/10.24124/2015/bpgub1076 2024-04-19T00:29:37Z Recent studies of Arctic and Subarctic environments have detected rising levels of natural and anthropogenic mercury (Hg), putting northern residents at risk for Hg exposure. Within lake sediments, Hg can be methylated by certain species of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria (SRB), a subset of Sulfur-Metabolizing Bacteria (SMB). This research assessed the controls of Subarctic SRB Hg-methylation in proglacial Kusawa Lake, Yukon, Canada. Kusawa was found to be oligotrophic, with very low primary productivity and an orthograde oxygen profile, conditions that inhibit Hg-methylation. In addition, the SMB proportion of total bacteria was small (1.9x10⁻³ %), no known SRB Hg-methylators were detected, the total Hg sediment concentration was 0.022 ± 0.0009 μgg⁻¹ (±SE) and methylmercury was undetectable. The results support previous research that suggests the factors influencing SRB Hg-methylation in Kusawa Lake are: (i) the rate of algal-derived Hg-scavenging, (ii) the sediment concentration of total Hg and (iii) the diversity of sediment SRB. The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b2006872 Thesis Arctic Subarctic Yukon UNBC's Digital Institutional Repository (University of Northern British Columbia) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
UNBC's Digital Institutional Repository (University of Northern British Columbia) |
op_collection_id |
ftunbcolumbiadc |
language |
English |
topic |
Lake sediments -- Mercury content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Sediments (Geology) -- Heavy metal content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Mercury -- Methylation Sulfur bacteria GB1630.Y8 J64 2015 |
spellingShingle |
Lake sediments -- Mercury content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Sediments (Geology) -- Heavy metal content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Mercury -- Methylation Sulfur bacteria GB1630.Y8 J64 2015 Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. |
topic_facet |
Lake sediments -- Mercury content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Sediments (Geology) -- Heavy metal content -- Yukon -- Kusawa Lake Mercury -- Methylation Sulfur bacteria GB1630.Y8 J64 2015 |
description |
Recent studies of Arctic and Subarctic environments have detected rising levels of natural and anthropogenic mercury (Hg), putting northern residents at risk for Hg exposure. Within lake sediments, Hg can be methylated by certain species of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria (SRB), a subset of Sulfur-Metabolizing Bacteria (SMB). This research assessed the controls of Subarctic SRB Hg-methylation in proglacial Kusawa Lake, Yukon, Canada. Kusawa was found to be oligotrophic, with very low primary productivity and an orthograde oxygen profile, conditions that inhibit Hg-methylation. In addition, the SMB proportion of total bacteria was small (1.9x10⁻³ %), no known SRB Hg-methylators were detected, the total Hg sediment concentration was 0.022 ± 0.0009 μgg⁻¹ (±SE) and methylmercury was undetectable. The results support previous research that suggests the factors influencing SRB Hg-methylation in Kusawa Lake are: (i) the rate of algal-derived Hg-scavenging, (ii) the sediment concentration of total Hg and (iii) the diversity of sediment SRB. The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b2006872 |
author2 |
Joe-Strack, Jocelyn Anne (Author) Petticrew, Ellen L. (Thesis advisor) University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution) |
format |
Thesis |
title |
Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. |
title_short |
Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. |
title_full |
Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. |
title_fullStr |
Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic Kusawa Lake, Yukon. |
title_sort |
mercury, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria and organic matter in the sediments of subarctic kusawa lake, yukon. |
publisher |
University of Northern British Columbia |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc:16972/datastream/PDF/download https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A16972 https://doi.org/10.24124/2015/bpgub1076 |
genre |
Arctic Subarctic Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Subarctic Yukon |
op_rights |
Copyright retained by the author. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.24124/2015/bpgub1076 |
_version_ |
1799475392632848384 |