Mercury Concentrations of Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) Vary by Sex

Patterns in relative differences in contaminant concentrations between the sexes across many species of fish may reveal clues for important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes, and may also be useful in developing fish consumption advisories and efficient designs for programs...

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Published inEnvironments (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 2; no. 4; pp. 546 - 564
Main Authors Madenjian, Charles, Francis, James, Braunscheidel, Jeffrey, Bohr, Joseph, Geiger, Matthew, Knottnerus, G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2015
Subjects
Androgens
Bioaccumulation
Bioenergetics
bioenergetics modeling
consumption advisories
Contaminants
Contamination
Dilution
excretion
Females
Fillets
Fish
Fisheries
Food contamination & poisoning
gross growth efficiency
Hg elimination rates
Lepomis macrochirus
Males
Mercury
Mercury (metal)
Metabolism
Modelling
Natural resources
PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyls
sex differences
Skin
tracers of food consumption
Ann Arbor Michigan
United States > US
Michigan
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Summary:Patterns in relative differences in contaminant concentrations between the sexes across many species of fish may reveal clues for important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes, and may also be useful in developing fish consumption advisories and efficient designs for programs meant to monitor contaminant levels in fish. We determined skin-off fillet and whole-fish total mercury (Hg) concentrations of 28 adult female and 26 adult male bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus) from Squaw Lake, Oakland County, Michigan (MI), USA. Bioenergetics modeling was used to quantify the effect of growth dilution on the difference in Hg concentrations between the sexes. On average, skin-off fillet and whole-fish Hg concentrations were 25.4% higher and 26.6% higher, respectively, in females compared with males. Thus, the relative difference in Hg concentrations between the sexes for skin-off fillets was nearly identical to that for whole fish. However, mean skin-off fillet Hg concentration (363 ng/g) was 2.3 times greater than mean whole-fish Hg concentration (155 ng/g). Males grew substantially faster than females, and bioenergetics modeling results indicated that the growth dilution effect could account for females having 14.4% higher Hg concentrations than males. Our findings should be useful in revising fish consumption advisories.
ISSN:2076-3298
2076-3298
DOI:10.3390/environments2040546