Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460, doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018. Mercury bioaccumulation in open-ocean food webs depends on the net rate of inorgan...
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/10725 2023-05-15T15:12:41+02:00 Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water Munson, Kathleen M. Lamborg, Carl H. Boiteau, Rene M. Saito, Mak A. 2018-11-02 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10725 en_US eng Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10725 doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460 doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 Article 2018 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 2022-05-28T23:00:32Z © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460, doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018. Mercury bioaccumulation in open-ocean food webs depends on the net rate of inorganic mercury conversion to monomethylmercury in the water column. We measured significant methylation rates across large gradients in oxygen utilization in the oligotrophic central Pacific Ocean. Overall, methylation rates over 24h incubation periods were comparable to those previously published from Arctic and Mediterranean waters despite differences in productivity between these marine environments. In contrast to previous studies that have attributed Hg methylation to heterotrophic bacteria, we measured higher methylation rates in filtered water compared to unfiltered water. Furthermore, we observed enhanced demethylation of newly produced methylated mercury in incubations of unfiltered water relative to filtered water. The addition of station-specific bulk filtered particulate matter, a source of inorganic mercury substrate and other possibly influential compounds, did not stimulate sustained methylation, although transient enhancement of methylation occurred within 8h of addition. The addition of dissolved inorganic cobalt also produced dramatic, if transient, increases in mercury methylation. Our results suggest important roles for noncellular or extracellular methylation mechanisms and demethylation in determining methylated mercury concentrations in marine oligotrophic waters. Methylation and demethylation occur dynamically in the open-ocean water column, even in regions with low accumulation of methylated mercury. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation in a Chemical Oceanography Program Grant (OCE-1031271) awarded to Carl H. Lamborg and Mak A. Saito and a graduate student fellowship to Kathleen M. Munson. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Arctic Kathleen ENVELOPE(-116.836,-116.836,55.617,55.617) Mak ENVELOPE(162.381,162.381,56.401,56.401) Munson ENVELOPE(-174.433,-174.433,-84.800,-84.800) Pacific Biogeosciences 15 21 6451 6460 |
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Open Polar |
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Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
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English |
description |
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460, doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018. Mercury bioaccumulation in open-ocean food webs depends on the net rate of inorganic mercury conversion to monomethylmercury in the water column. We measured significant methylation rates across large gradients in oxygen utilization in the oligotrophic central Pacific Ocean. Overall, methylation rates over 24h incubation periods were comparable to those previously published from Arctic and Mediterranean waters despite differences in productivity between these marine environments. In contrast to previous studies that have attributed Hg methylation to heterotrophic bacteria, we measured higher methylation rates in filtered water compared to unfiltered water. Furthermore, we observed enhanced demethylation of newly produced methylated mercury in incubations of unfiltered water relative to filtered water. The addition of station-specific bulk filtered particulate matter, a source of inorganic mercury substrate and other possibly influential compounds, did not stimulate sustained methylation, although transient enhancement of methylation occurred within 8h of addition. The addition of dissolved inorganic cobalt also produced dramatic, if transient, increases in mercury methylation. Our results suggest important roles for noncellular or extracellular methylation mechanisms and demethylation in determining methylated mercury concentrations in marine oligotrophic waters. Methylation and demethylation occur dynamically in the open-ocean water column, even in regions with low accumulation of methylated mercury. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation in a Chemical Oceanography Program Grant (OCE-1031271) awarded to Carl H. Lamborg and Mak A. Saito and a graduate student fellowship to Kathleen M. Munson. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Munson, Kathleen M. Lamborg, Carl H. Boiteau, Rene M. Saito, Mak A. |
spellingShingle |
Munson, Kathleen M. Lamborg, Carl H. Boiteau, Rene M. Saito, Mak A. Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
author_facet |
Munson, Kathleen M. Lamborg, Carl H. Boiteau, Rene M. Saito, Mak A. |
author_sort |
Munson, Kathleen M. |
title |
Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
title_short |
Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
title_full |
Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
title_fullStr |
Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
title_sort |
dynamic mercury methylation and demethylation in oligotrophic marine water |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10725 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-116.836,-116.836,55.617,55.617) ENVELOPE(162.381,162.381,56.401,56.401) ENVELOPE(-174.433,-174.433,-84.800,-84.800) |
geographic |
Arctic Kathleen Mak Munson Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Kathleen Mak Munson Pacific |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460 doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 Biogeosciences 15 (2018): 6451-6460 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10725 doi:10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6451-2018 |
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Biogeosciences |
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15 |
container_issue |
21 |
container_start_page |
6451 |
op_container_end_page |
6460 |
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