Methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury, could jump by 300 to 600 percent in zooplankton – tiny animals at the base of the marine food chain – if land run-off increases by 15 to 30 percent, according to a new study. And such an increase is possible due to climate change, according to the pioneering study by Rutgers and other scientists published this week in Science Advances.
Background:
Mercury is one of the
top 10 chemicals of major public health concern, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says mercury is the main cause of
fish consumption advisories aimed at protecting human health, the study notes.
Since the industrial era began, mercury that winds up in ecosystems is estimated to have increased by 200 to 500 percent, the study says. Mercury accumulates in fish and shellfish as methylmercury, which can affect the nervous, digestive and immune systems, as well as the lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes.
:
For the study, a group of scientists in Sweden tried to recreate the environmental conditions in a Bothnian Sea estuary off Sweden’s east coast. They created simulated ecosystems that took up two floors of a building. They collected intact sediment cores from the estuary, added water, nutrients and mercury, and studied what happened to the mercury, zooplankton and other organisms.
Photo: Sofi Jonsson: Erik Björn of Umeå University in
Sweden injects small amounts of enriched mercury isotopes
into sediments for the experiment |
The scientists sought to understand, model and predict the impact of climate change on mercury accumulation and methylmercury production, said Schaefer, who specializes in methylmercury research and is trying to understand how bacteria transform mercury into methylmercury.
“With climate change, we expect increased precipitation in many areas in the Northern Hemisphere, leading to more run-off,” said Jeffra K. Schaefer, study co-author and assistant research professor in Rutgers’ Department of Environmental Sciences. Natural organic matter from plants and animals in run-off also increased methylmercury levels in water by up to 200 percent.
“That means a greater discharge of mercury and organic carbon to coastal ecosystems, which leads to higher levels of mercury in the small animals living there. The study showed that an increase in natural organic matter entering coastal waters can boost the bioaccumulation of methylmercury – a highly toxic chemical found at elevated levels in many species of fish – in zooplankton by 200 to 700 percent. The huge increase in methylmercury shifts the food web from being autotrophic (largely microscopic plants and cyanobacteria that make food from inorganic matter) to heterotrophic (bacteria that eat organic matter produced by plants and cyanobacteria).
These coastal regions are major feeding grounds for fish, and thus the organisms living there serve as an important source of mercury that accumulates to high levels in the fish people like to eat.”
The results showed the importance of including the food web-related impacts of climate change on the bioaccumulation of methylmercury in future mercury models and risk assessments, the study says.
“We found that the increase in organic matter changed the food web structure in the simulated estuary and that had an impact on the mercury accumulation in zooplankton,” Schaefer said. “That was the most dramatic effect.”
“This is quite an important study,” she added. “People haven’t really considered the changes in food web structure at the bottom of the food chain and a link to mercury accumulation. I think these findings are quite surprising and, in hindsight, they make sense.”
Efforts to reduce mercury emissions may be offset by the impacts of climate change, including increased precipitation and run-off, and we might not see an expected decrease of methylmercury in the food web, she said.
The study was led by
Erik Björn of EVISA member organization
Umeå University in Sweden and conducted by lead author Sofi Jonsson, formerly with Umeå University and now at the University of Connecticut. Other authors include Agneta Andersson of Umeå University; Mats B. Nilsson and Ulf Skyllberg of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Erik Lundberg of Umeå University; Schaefer; and Staffan Åkerblom of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Source: Rutgers University
The original studies
Sofi Jonsson, Agneta Andersson, Mats B. Nilsson, Ulf Skyllberg, Erik Lundberg, Jeffra K. Schaefer, Staffan Åkerblom,
Erik Björn,
"Terrestrial discharges mediate trophic shifts and enhance methylmercury accumulation in estuarine biota," Sci. Adv., 30/1 (2017) e1601239.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601239
Related studies (newest first)
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PMC: 238649
Related EVISA Resources Link database: Toxicity of Organic mercury compounds Brief summary: Speciation and Toxicity Link database: Human exposure to methylmercury via the diet 
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last time modified: September 24, 2024
