Differences in Methylmercury and Inorganic Mercury Biomagnification in a Tropical Marine Food Web

• Published in: Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology Vol. 92; no. 3; pp. 274 - 278
• Main Authors: Seixas, Tércia G., Moreira, Isabel, Siciliano, Salvatore, Malm, Olaf, Kehrig, Helena A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Aquatic Pollution; Biological and medical sciences; Biological magnification; Brazil; Cetacea; Decapoda; Dolphins - metabolism; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental Monitoring; Fishes - metabolism; Food Chain; Food chains; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Marine; Marine and brackish environment; Marine ecology; Mercury; Mercury - metabolism; Methylmercury; Methylmercury Compounds - metabolism; Plankton; Pollution; Shellfish; Soil Science & Conservation; Toxicology; Trophic relationships; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollutants, Chemical - metabolism; Water Pollution Control; Zooplankton - metabolism; South Atlantic; Atlantic Ocean; Brazil; Oligotrophic ecosystem; Marine biota; South Atlantic Ocean; Tropical ecosystem; Trophic transfer; Biota; Trophic Transfer; Inorganic compound; Heavy metal; Marine environment; Trace element; Trophic chain; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Food web; Plankton; Biocenosis; Ecosystem; Methylmercury; Mercury Organic compounds; Cetacea; Biological accumulation; Oligotrophy; Comparative study; Biomagnification
• ISSN: 0007-4861; 1432-0800
• DOI: 10.1007/s00128-014-1208-7

Methylmercury (MeHg), inorganic mercury (Hg inorg ) and their biomagnification factors (BMF) were evaluated along a non-degraded Brazilian bay food web. Highly significant differences ( p  < 0.0001) were found between MeHg and Hg inorg concentrations among all organisms (microplankton, shrimp, fish and dolphin). MeHg increased with increasing trophic position while Hg inorg did not present the same pattern. BMF values for MeHg were higher than 1 for all trophic interactions from source to consumer, indicating that MeHg was transferred more efficiently and biomagnified over the entire web. Only one BMF exceeding one was observed for Hg inorg (27) between microplankton and their consumer, planktivorous fish. BMF values for Hg inorg were significantly different than those found for MeHg (20) at the base of the food web.