Mercury and carbon in marine pelagic zooplankton: linkage with oceanographic processes in the Canadian High Arctic

• Main Author: Pomerleau, Corinne
• Other Authors: Stern, Gary (Environment and Geography), Ferguson, Steven (Environment and Geography) Wang, Feiyue (Chemistry)
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: mercury; zooplankton; stable isotope; High Arctic; Arctic; Ellesmere Island; Mackenzie River; Prince Of Wales Glacier; Smith Sound; Wales Glacier; Amundsen Gulf; Calanus hyperboreus; Mackenzie river; Mackenzie Shelf; Prince of Wales Glacier; Sea ice; Smith sound; Themisto; Themisto libellula; Zooplankton
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/3068

This thesis investigates the relationships between mercury (Hg) and stable isotope of carbon (δ13C) in marine pelagic zooplankton (Calanus spp., Themisto spp. and Euchaeta spp.) with water mass characteristics in the North Water Polynya (NOW) and in the Mackenzie shelf – Amundsen Gulf area. Two ship based sampling field expeditions were carried out in late summer of 2005 and 2006 in both regions on board the CCGS Amundsen. In the North Water (NOW) polynya, higher levels of water Hg, depleted δ18O, lower salinity and lower nitrate levels were measured at sampling locations near the Prince of Wales glacier (POW) on the eastern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Smith Sound area. These results suggest that the glacier may be a source of Hg to this region which, in turn, is responsible for the correspondingly high concentrations of THg and MMHg measured in Calanus spp. and Euchaeta spp. at the same locations. The Mackenzie shelf – Amundsen Gulf region was characterized by fresher surface water properties (low salinity and depleted δ18O) in the western part and was strongly linked to the influence of the Mackenzie River. Higher THg concentrations in zooplankton were associated with larger fractions of both meteoric water and sea-ice melt. These findings suggest that in the western Arctic, inorganic Hg uptake in zooplankton via-absorption near surface water was highly driven by freshwater inputs into the system. Based on the analysis of three main genus Calanus spp. (mostly adult females Calanus hyperboreus), Euchaeta spp. and Themisto spp. (mostly adult Themisto libellula), THg and MMHg concentrations were the highest in the carnivorous copepod Euchaeta spp. in the North Water polynya followed by the omnivorous hyperiid amphipod Themisto spp. The herbivorous copepod Calanus spp. had both the lowest THg and MMHg concentrations in the Eastern and the Western Arctic. In addition, the Western Arctic is the area in which each zooplankton genus had the most depleted carbon and the most enriched nitrogen. The highest ...