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Adams B, Bowley J, Rohwer M, Oberg E, Willemssens K, Wintersteen W, Peterson RK, Higley LG. Heavy metal movement through insect food chains in pristine thermal springs of Yellowstone National Park. PeerJ 2024; 12:e16827. [PMID: 38406272 PMCID: PMC10893860 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Yellowstone National Park thermal features regularly discharge various heavy metals and metalloids. These metals are taken up by microorganisms that often form mats in thermal springs. These microbial mats also serve as food sources for invertebrate assemblages. To examine how heavy metals move through insect food webs associated with hot springs, two sites were selected for this study. Dragon-Beowulf Hot Springs, acid-sulfate chloride springs, have a pH of 2.9, water temperatures above 70 °C, and populations of thermophilic bacterial, archaeal, and algal mats. Rabbit Creek Hot Springs, alkaline springs, have a pH of up to 9, some water temperatures in excess of 60 °C, and are populated with thermophilic and phototrophic bacterial mats. Mats in both hydrothermal systems form the trophic base and support active metal transfer to terrestrial food chains. In both types of springs, invertebrates bioaccumulated heavy metals including chromium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, cadmium, mercury, tin and lead, and the metalloids arsenic, selenium, and antimony resulting from consuming the algal and bacterial mat biomass. At least two orders of magnitude increase in concentrations were observed in the ephydrid shore fly Paracoenia turbida, as compared to the mats for all metals except antimony, mercury, and lead. The highest bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of 729 was observed for chromium. At the other end of the food web, the invertebrate apex predator, Cicindelidia haemorrhagica, had at least a 10-fold BAF for all metals at some location-year combinations, except with antimony. Of other taxa, high BAFs were observed with zinc for Nebria sp. (2180) and for Salda littoralis (1080). This accumulation, occurring between primary producer and primary consumer trophic levels at both springs, is biomagnified through the trophic web. These observations suggest trace metals enter the geothermal food web through the microbial mat community and are then transferred through the food chain. Also, while bioaccumulation of arsenic is uncommon, we observed five instances of increases near or exceeding 10-fold: Odontomyia sp. larvae (13.6), P. turbida (34.8), C. haemorrhagica (9.7), Rhagovelia distincta (16.3), and Ambrysus mormon (42.8).
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Affiliation(s)
- Braymond Adams
- Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America
| | - John Bowley
- Department of Land Resources & Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States of America
| | - Monica Rohwer
- School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, United States of America
| | - Erik Oberg
- Yellowstone National Park, Gardner, MT, United States of America
| | - Kelly Willemssens
- School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, United States of America
| | - Wendy Wintersteen
- Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America
| | - Robert K.D. Peterson
- Department of Land Resources & Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States of America
| | - Leon G. Higley
- School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, United States of America
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Bradford MA, Mallory ML, O'Driscoll NJ. Mercury bioaccumulation and speciation in coastal invertebrates: Implications for trophic magnification in a marine food web. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2023; 188:114647. [PMID: 36736254 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Revised: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Studies on mercury bioaccumulation and biomagnification in coastal invertebrates in eastern Canada are limited, but these data are necessary to determine risk of mercury exposure effects in upper trophic level organisms. We quantified methylmercury (MeHg), total mercury (THg), and stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N in 14 species of invertebrates in the Minas Basin. The overall mean concentration of MeHg (12.78 ± 11.23 ng/g dw) was approximately 10 times below the Canadian guideline for the protection of wildlife consumers like fish and birds of 157.20 ng/g dry weight (dw). Invertebrates at higher trophic positions (δ15N) had greater THg and particularly MeHg. The Trophic Magnification Factors (TMF) for MeHg and THg (1.59 and 1.21 respectively) were similar to others reported in studies of food webs containing higher trophic level organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Molly A Bradford
- Earth and Environmental Science Department, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada.
| | - Mark L Mallory
- Biology Department, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Nelson J O'Driscoll
- Earth and Environmental Science Department, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
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Barst BD, Chételat J, Basu N. Toxicological risk of mercury for fish and invertebrate prey in the Arctic. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 836:155702. [PMID: 35523325 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
We assessed the risks of mercury (Hg) to Arctic marine and freshwater fish by compiling published muscle Hg concentrations and information on tissue concentrations associated with adverse effects. The assessment included 333 groups of fish representing 35 genera and 14,002 individuals sampled from sites across the circumpolar Arctic. Mean or median Hg concentrations in fish muscle varied widely from 0.005 μg/g ww to a maximum of 2.2 μg/g ww. Results indicate that most (n = 139 of 333 or ~ 42%) Arctic fish are not at risk for Hg toxicity, based on the large number of fish mean or median muscle Hg concentrations below 0.1 μg/g ww. A smaller number of the identified groups (n = 76 of 333 or ~ 23%) of Arctic fish had mean or median Hg concentrations consistent with moderate (0.3-0.5 μg/g ww), high (0.5-2 μg/g ww), and severe risk (≥2 μg/g ww). Most of the fish with Hg concentrations in these risk categories were long-lived predators (e.g., non-anadromous Arctic char, northern pike, lake trout, Greenland halibut, Greenland shark). We also, for the first time, conducted a risk assessment of Arctic marine and freshwater invertebrates to evaluate the potential for Hg effects at lower trophic levels and to support risk assessment for Arctic fish. The vast majority (90%) of site-specific Hg or methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in taxa of marine and freshwater invertebrates (n = 321) were < 0.5 μg/g dw, which is well below critical body residues of Hg in aquatic invertebrates associated with acute and sublethal effects determined in laboratory dosing studies. As the screening-level approach we carried out in the present study is not indicative of actual effects, more studies which directly evaluate the effects of Hg exposure in Arctic fish species are needed. The information here will be of use to Article 22 (Effectiveness Evaluation) of the Minamata Convention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin D Barst
- Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA.
| | - John Chételat
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Niladri Basu
- Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
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Kraus JM, Holloway JM, Pribil MJ, McGee BN, Stricker CA, Rutherford DL, Todd AS. Increased Mercury and Reduced Insect Diversity in Linked Stream-Riparian Food Webs Downstream of a Historical Mercury Mine. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY 2022; 41:1696-1710. [PMID: 35404497 DOI: 10.1002/etc.5342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2022] [Accepted: 04/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Historical mining left a legacy of abandoned mines and waste rock in remote headwaters of major river systems in the western United States. Understanding the influence of these legacy mines on culturally and ecologically important downstream ecosystems is not always straightforward because of elevated natural levels of mineralization in mining-impacted watersheds. To test the ecological effects of historic mining in the headwaters of the upper Salmon River watershed in Idaho (USA), we measured multiple community and chemical endpoints in downstream linked aquatic-terrestrial food webs. Mining inputs impacted downstream food webs through increased mercury accumulation and decreased insect biodiversity. Total mercury (THg) in seston, aquatic insect larvae, adult aquatic insects, riparian spiders, and fish at sites up to 7.6 km downstream of mining was found at much higher concentrations (1.3-11.3-fold) and was isotopically distinct compared with sites immediately upstream of mining inputs. Methylmercury concentrations in bull trout and riparian spiders were sufficiently high (732-918 and 347-1140 ng MeHg g-1 dry wt, respectively) to affect humans, birds, and piscivorous fish. Furthermore, the alpha-diversity of benthic insects was locally depressed by 12%-20% within 4.3-5.7 km downstream from the mine. However, because total insect biomass was not affected by mine inputs, the mass of mercury in benthic insects at a site (i.e., ng Hg m-2 ) was extremely elevated downstream (10-1778-fold) compared with directly upstream of mining inputs. Downstream adult aquatic insect-mediated fluxes of THg were also high (~16 ng THg m-2 day-1 ). Abandoned mines can have ecologically important effects on downstream communities, including reduced biodiversity and increased mercury flux to higher order consumers, including fish, birds, and humans. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:1696-1710. Published 2022. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna M Kraus
- Columbia Environmental Research Center, US Geological Survey, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - JoAnn M Holloway
- Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA
| | - Michael J Pribil
- Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA
| | - Ben N McGee
- Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA
| | - Craig A Stricker
- Fort Collins Science Center, Denver Field Station, US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA
| | - Danny L Rutherford
- Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA
| | - Andrew S Todd
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Denver, Colorado, USA
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Fonseca MF, Ferreira FC, Choueri RB, Fonseca G. M-Triad: An improvement of the sediment quality triad. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 770:145245. [PMID: 33736403 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2020] [Revised: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The traditional sediment quality triad generally uses three lines of evidence (LOE) in the assessment, integrating environmental chemistry, ecology and ecotoxicology. However the assessment is performed without considering the multivariate structure within LOE. In order to improve the sediment quality assessment, the M-Triad is proposed. Instead of averaging the values within a LOE, the new approach is based on the Euclidean distance between each sampling station and the reference station (s) for each LOE. These distances are then plotted in a radar-chart to obtain the area of the triangle and the quality assessment is subsequently obtained from the difference between the triangle areas of the impacted and the reference station. Three studies were selected to test the applicability of the M-Triad. In two cases, the M-Triad returned a more realistic ranking of the stations as observed in the principal component analysis (PCA) from each LOE By including the Euclidean distance, the use of M-Triad is advantageous when multiple variables with negative or uncorrelated patterns within a LOE are analyzed simultaneously. The combination of the M-Triad and the results of the PCA allows one to identify multiple contamination gradients and how biota and bioassays respond to each of these gradients. In comparison to the traditional method, the M-Triad reduces the uncertainty of the final analysis, permitting a more comprehensive ecological assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Ferrel Fonseca
- Rua Carvalho de Mendonça 144, 11070-102 Santos, Instituto do Mar, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Fabio Cop Ferreira
- Rua Carvalho de Mendonça 144, 11070-102 Santos, Instituto do Mar, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil.
| | - Rodrigo Brasil Choueri
- Rua Carvalho de Mendonça 144, 11070-102 Santos, Instituto do Mar, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Gustavo Fonseca
- Rua Carvalho de Mendonça 144, 11070-102 Santos, Instituto do Mar, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil
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Aouina A, Oloyede HO, Akong RA, Abdelhak J, Görls H, Plass W, Eseola AO. Exploring Broad Molecular Derivatization as Tool in Selective Fluorescent Detection of Mercury(II) by a Series of Large Stokes Shift 1,4-Bis(5-phenyl-1 H-imidazol-4-yl)benzenes. Ind Eng Chem Res 2020. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c05087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Aroua Aouina
- Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 8, D-07743 Jena, Germany
- Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Laboratory of Materials, Crystal Chemistry and Applied Thermodynamics, University of Tunis El Manar, 2092 El Manar, Tunisia
| | - Hammed Olawale Oloyede
- Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 8, D-07743 Jena, Germany
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, 200284 Ibadan, Nigeria
- Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Adeyemi College of Education, 350101 Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria
| | - Raymond Akong Akong
- Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 8, D-07743 Jena, Germany
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, 200284 Ibadan, Nigeria
| | - Jawher Abdelhak
- Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Laboratory of Materials, Crystal Chemistry and Applied Thermodynamics, University of Tunis El Manar, 2092 El Manar, Tunisia
| | - Helmar Görls
- Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 8, D-07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Winfried Plass
- Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 8, D-07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Abiodun Omokehinde Eseola
- Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 8, D-07743 Jena, Germany
- Materials Chemistry Group, Department of Chemical Sciences, Redeemer’s University Ede, 232102 Ede, Osun State, Nigeria
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High Performance Zinc Oxide Nanorod-Doped Ion Imprinted Polypyrrole for the Selective Electrosensing of Mercury II Ions. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/app10197010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
A biomimetic, ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) was prepared by electropolymerization of pyrrole at the surface of gold electrodes decorated with vertically grown ZnO nanorods. The vertical growth of the nanorods was achieved via an ultrathin aryl monolayer grafted by reduction of diazonium salt precursor. Pyrrole was polymerized in the presence of L-cysteine as chelating agent and Hg2+ (template). Hg2+-imprinted polypyrrole (PPy) was also prepared on a bare gold electrode in order to compare the two methods of sensor design (Au-ZnO-IIP vs. Au-IIP). Non-imprinted PPy was prepared in the same conditions but in the absence of any Hg2+ template. The strategy combining diazonium salt modification and ZnO nanorod decoration of gold electrodes permitted us to increase considerably the specific surface area and thus improve the sensor performance. The limit of detection (LOD) of the designed sensor was ~1 pM, the lowest value ever reported in the literature for gold electrode sensors. The dissociation constants between PPy and Hg2+ were estimated at [Kd1 = (7.89 ± 3.63) mM and Kd2 = (38.10 ± 9.22) pM]. The sensitivity of the designed sensor was found to be 0.692 ± 0.034 μA.pM-1. The Au-ZnO-IIP was found to be highly selective towards Hg2+ compared to cadmium, lead and copper ions. This sensor design strategy could open up new horizons in monitoring toxic heavy metal ions in water and therefore contribute to enhancing environmental quality.
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