Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic
Mercury is increasing to toxic levels in Arctic biota living at the top of food webs. The rapid bioaccumulation and biomagnification of methylmercury (MeHg) in food chains, and the subsistence lifestyle of northern populations, has resulted in high levels of Hg in their blood. No prior measurements...
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ftunivottawa:oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/26515 2023-05-15T14:32:21+02:00 Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic Loseto, Lisa Lucia Lean, David 2003 152 p. application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10393/26515 https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-18224 en eng University of Ottawa (Canada) Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, page: 2095. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/26515 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-18224 Biology Ecology Environmental Sciences Thesis 2003 ftunivottawa https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-18224 2021-01-04T17:08:47Z Mercury is increasing to toxic levels in Arctic biota living at the top of food webs. The rapid bioaccumulation and biomagnification of methylmercury (MeHg) in food chains, and the subsistence lifestyle of northern populations, has resulted in high levels of Hg in their blood. No prior measurements of MeHg sources to Arctic ecosystems have been made. In southern latitudes wetlands are considered important sources of MeHg with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) thought to be responsible. Thus, the production of MeHg in Arctic wetlands was evaluated as well as SRB presence. Arctic wetlands were further evaluated as sources of MeHg in Arctic ecosystems, as well since snowmelt water provides 60 to 80% of water to Arctic terrestrial systems it was also evaluated as a source of MeHg. This was the first study to evaluate sources of MeHg entering Arctic ecosystems, and showed that although wetlands produced MeHg, the export to downstream lakes was dependant on site characteristics such as DOC levels, furthermore snowmelt water was the most significant source of MeHg to Arctic ecosystems measured here. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Thesis Arctic uO Research (University of Ottawa - uOttawa) Arctic |
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Open Polar |
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uO Research (University of Ottawa - uOttawa) |
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ftunivottawa |
language |
English |
topic |
Biology Ecology Environmental Sciences |
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Biology Ecology Environmental Sciences Loseto, Lisa Lucia Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic |
topic_facet |
Biology Ecology Environmental Sciences |
description |
Mercury is increasing to toxic levels in Arctic biota living at the top of food webs. The rapid bioaccumulation and biomagnification of methylmercury (MeHg) in food chains, and the subsistence lifestyle of northern populations, has resulted in high levels of Hg in their blood. No prior measurements of MeHg sources to Arctic ecosystems have been made. In southern latitudes wetlands are considered important sources of MeHg with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) thought to be responsible. Thus, the production of MeHg in Arctic wetlands was evaluated as well as SRB presence. Arctic wetlands were further evaluated as sources of MeHg in Arctic ecosystems, as well since snowmelt water provides 60 to 80% of water to Arctic terrestrial systems it was also evaluated as a source of MeHg. This was the first study to evaluate sources of MeHg entering Arctic ecosystems, and showed that although wetlands produced MeHg, the export to downstream lakes was dependant on site characteristics such as DOC levels, furthermore snowmelt water was the most significant source of MeHg to Arctic ecosystems measured here. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) |
author2 |
Lean, David |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Loseto, Lisa Lucia |
author_facet |
Loseto, Lisa Lucia |
author_sort |
Loseto, Lisa Lucia |
title |
Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic |
title_short |
Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic |
title_full |
Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Methylmercury sources in the Canadian High Arctic |
title_sort |
methylmercury sources in the canadian high arctic |
publisher |
University of Ottawa (Canada) |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10393/26515 https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-18224 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, page: 2095. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/26515 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-18224 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-18224 |
_version_ |
1766305780817985536 |