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High Rates of Mercury Biomagnification in Fish from Amazonian Floodplain-Lake Food Webs

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dc.contributor.authorNyholt, Kelsey
dc.contributor.authorJardine, Timothy
dc.contributor.authorVillamarin, Francisco
dc.contributor.authorJacobi, Cristina Mariana
dc.contributor.authorHawes, Joseph
dc.contributor.authorCampos-Silva, Joao V.
dc.contributor.authorSrayko, Stephen
dc.contributor.authorMagnusson, William
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-11T19:47:12Z
dc.date.available2022-05-11T19:47:12Z
dc.date.issued4/11/2022
dc.description.abstractDespite a global phase out of some point sources, mercury (Hg) remains elevated in aquatic food webs, posing health risks for fish-eating consumers. Many tropical regions have fast growing organisms, potentially short food chains, and few industrial point sources, suggesting low Hg baselines and low rates of trophic magnification with limited risk to people. Nevertheless, insufficient work on food-web Hg has been undertaken in the tropics and fish consumption is high in some regions. We studied Hg concentrations in fishes from floodplain lakes of the Juruá River, Amazonas, Brazil with three objectives: 1) determine rates of Hg trophic magnification, 2) assess whether Hg concentrations are high enough to impact humans eating fish, and 3) determine whether there are seasonal differences in fish Hg concentrations. A total of 380 fish-muscle samples were collected from 12 floodplain lakes during the low-water (September 2018) and falling-water (June 2019) seasons and analyzed for total Hg and stable nitrogen (N) isotopes. The average trophic magnification factor (increase per trophic level) was 10.1 in the low-water season and 5.4 in the falling-water season, both well above the global average for freshwaters. This high rate of trophic magnification, coupled with higher-than-expected Hg concentrations in herbivorous species, led to high concentrations (up to 17.6 mg/kg dry weight) in predatory pirarucu and piranha. Nearly 70% of all samples had Hg concentrations above the recommended human-consumption guidelines. Average concentrations were 42% higher in the dry season than the wet season, but differences varied by species. Since Hg concentrations are higher than expected and fish consumption in this region is high, future research should focus on Hg exposure for human populations here and in other tropical-rainforest regions, even in the absence of local point sources of Hg.
dc.description.sponsorshipNSERCen_US
dc.description.versionPeer Reviewed
dc.description.versionPeer Revieweden_US
dc.identifier.citationNyholt, K., Jardine, T. D., Villamarín, F., Jacobi, C. M., Hawes, J. E., Campos-Silva, J. V., ... & Magnusson, W. E. (2022). High rates of mercury biomagnification in fish from Amazonian floodplain-lake food webs. Science of The Total Environment, 155161.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155161
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10388/13957
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherScience of the Total Environmenten_US
dc.subjectTrophic magnificationen
dc.subjectMethylmercuryen
dc.subjectArapaimaen
dc.subjectSubsistence fishingen
dc.subjectLow-water seasonen
dc.subjectFalling-water seasonen
dc.titleHigh Rates of Mercury Biomagnification in Fish from Amazonian Floodplain-Lake Food Websen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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