| Title | Methylmercury Bioaccumulation in Deepest Ocean Fauna: Implications for Ocean Mercury Biotransport through Food Webs |
| Authors | Liu, Maodian Xiao, Wenjie Zhang, Qianru Shi, Linlin Wang, Xuejun Xu, Yunping |
| Affiliation | Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Minist Educ, Lab Earth Surface Proc, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China Yale Univ, Sch Forestry & Environm Studies, New Haven, CT 06511 USA Shanghai Ocean Univ, Coll Marine Sci, Shanghai Engn Res Ctr Hadal Sci & Technol, Shanghai 201306, Peoples R China Georgia Inst Technol, Sch Earth & Atmospher Sci, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA |
| Issue Date | 14-Jul-2020 |
| Publisher | ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY LETTERS |
| Abstract | For many contaminants, the hadal zone (from 6000 to 11000 m depth) is potentially the least explored environment. In this work, we reveal the bioaccumulation of methylmercury (MeHg), a potent neurotoxin that can be substantially bioaccumulated within marine food webs, in amphipod fauna from the Mariana, Massau, and New Britain trenches. We identified high levels of mercury (Hg) and MeHg ranging in wet weight from 47 to 435 ng/g and from 3.8 to 61 ng/g, respectively, in amphipods from these trenches. Placing the MeHg level into a broader comparative context with previous values, we found that the MeHg level in this study is significantly higher than that from many other aquatic environments around the world. High MeHg levels are largely dependent on food availability, which is probably related to surface ocean production, terrestrial input, and MeHg bioaccumulation in marine food webs. Comparisons of the distribution and variation trends of MeHg levels based on fatty acid, radiocarbon (Delta C-14), and stable carbon isotope (delta C-13) analyses supported our hypothesis. Our study suggests that anthropogenic Hg inputs into surface oceans could be rapidly transported to the world's deepest oceans through marine food webs and highlights that hadal trenches are not biological deserts. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/604663 |
| ISSN | 2328-8930 |
| DOI | 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00299 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) |
| Appears in Collections: | 城市与环境学院 地表过程分析与模拟教育部重点实验室 |
