Mercury in western North America: A synthesis of environmental contamination, fluxes, bioaccumulation, and risk to fish and wildlife.

Autor: Eagles-Smith CA; U.S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. Electronic address: ceagles-smith@usgs.gov., Wiener JG; University of Wisconsin La Crosse, River Studies Center, 1725 State Street, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA., Eckley CS; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region-10, 2100 6th Ave., Suite 900, Seattle, WA 98101, USA., Willacker JJ; U.S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA., Evers DC; Biodiversity Research Institute, 276 Canco Road, Portland, ME 04103, USA., Marvin-DiPasquale M; U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA., Obrist D; Desert Research Institute, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, USA., Fleck JA; U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science Center, 6000 J St., Placer Hall, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA., Aiken GR; U.S. Geological Survey, National Research Program, 3215 Marine St., Boulder, CO 80303, USA., Lepak JM; Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 317 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA., Jackson AK; Oregon State University, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA., Webster JP; University of Colorado, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Boulder, CO 80309, USA., Stewart AR; U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA., Davis JA; San Francisco Estuary Institute, 4911 Central Ave., Richmond, CA 94804, USA., Alpers CN; U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science Center, 6000 J St., Placer Hall, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA., Ackerman JT; U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Dixon Field Station, 800 Business Park Drive, Dixon, CA 95620, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2016 Oct 15; Vol. 568, pp. 1213-1226. Date of Electronic Publication: 2016 Jun 16.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.094
Abstrakt: Western North America is a region defined by extreme gradients in geomorphology and climate, which support a diverse array of ecological communities and natural resources. The region also has extreme gradients in mercury (Hg) contamination due to a broad distribution of inorganic Hg sources. These diverse Hg sources and a varied landscape create a unique and complex mosaic of ecological risk from Hg impairment associated with differential methylmercury (MeHg) production and bioaccumulation. Understanding the landscape-scale variation in the magnitude and relative importance of processes associated with Hg transport, methylation, and MeHg bioaccumulation requires a multidisciplinary synthesis that transcends small-scale variability. The Western North America Mercury Synthesis compiled, analyzed, and interpreted spatial and temporal patterns and drivers of Hg and MeHg in air, soil, vegetation, sediments, fish, and wildlife across western North America. This collaboration evaluated the potential risk from Hg to fish, and wildlife health, human exposure, and examined resource management activities that influenced the risk of Hg contamination. This paper integrates the key information presented across the individual papers that comprise the synthesis. The compiled information indicates that Hg contamination is widespread, but heterogeneous, across western North America. The storage and transport of inorganic Hg across landscape gradients are largely regulated by climate and land-cover factors such as plant productivity and precipitation. Importantly, there was a striking lack of concordance between pools and sources of inorganic Hg, and MeHg in aquatic food webs. Additionally, water management had a widespread influence on MeHg bioaccumulation in aquatic ecosystems, whereas mining impacts where relatively localized. These results highlight the decoupling of inorganic Hg sources with MeHg production and bioaccumulation. Together the findings indicate that developing efforts to control MeHg production in the West may be particularly beneficial for reducing food web exposure instead of efforts to simply control inorganic Hg sources.
(Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: