Mercury in freshwater ecosystems of the Canadian Arctic: Recent advances on its cycling and fate

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dc.contributor.authorChételat, John
dc.contributor.authorAmyot, Marc
dc.contributor.authorArp, Paul
dc.contributor.authorBlais, Jules M.
dc.contributor.authorDepew, David
dc.contributor.authorEmmerton, Craig A.
dc.contributor.authorEvans, Marlene
dc.contributor.authorGamberg, Mary
dc.contributor.authorGantner, Nikolaus
dc.contributor.authorGirard, Catherine
dc.contributor.authorGraydon, Jennifer
dc.contributor.authorKirk, Jane
dc.contributor.authorLean, David
dc.contributor.authorLehnherr, Igor
dc.contributor.authorMuir, Derek
dc.contributor.authorNasr, Mina
dc.contributor.authorPoulain, Alexandre J.
dc.contributor.authorPower, Michael
dc.contributor.authorRoach, Pat
dc.contributor.authorStern, Gary
dc.contributor.authorSwanson, Heidi
dc.contributor.authorvan der Velden, Shannon
dc.date.accessioned2018-05-30T17:49:33Z
dc.date.available2018-05-30T17:49:33Z
dc.date.copyright2015en_US
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractThe Canadian Arctic has vast freshwater resources, and fish are important in the diet of many Northerners. Mercury is a contaminant of concern because of its potential toxicity and elevated bioaccumulation in some fish populations. Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in characterizing the cycling and fate of mercury in these freshwater environments. Large amounts of new data on concentrations, speciation and fluxes of Hg are provided and summarized for water and sediment, which were virtually absent for the Canadian Arctic a decade ago. The biogeochemical processes that control the speciation of mercury remain poorly resolved, including the sites and controls of methylmercury production. Food web studies have examined the roles of Hg uptake, trophic transfer, and diet for Hg bioaccumulation in fish, and, in particular, advances have been made in identifying determinants of mercury levels in lake-dwelling and sea-run forms of Arctic char. In a comparison of common freshwater fish species that were sampled across the Canadian Arctic between 2002 and 2009, no geographic patterns or regional hotspots were evident. Over the last two to four decades, Hg concentrations have increased in some monitored populations of fish in the Mackenzie River Basin while other populations from the Yukon and Nunavut showed no change or a slight decline. The different Hg trends indicate that the drivers of temporal change may be regional or habitat-specific. The Canadian Arctic is undergoing profound environmental change, and preliminary evidence suggests that it may be impacting the cycling and bioaccumulation of mercury. Further research is needed to investigate climate change impacts on the Hg cycle as well as biogeochemical controls of methylmercury production and the processes leading to increasing Hg levels in some fish populations in the Canadian Arctic.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe authors wish to thank the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, as well as ArcticNet and International Polar Year, for their funding support which made possible the generation of much of the data presented in this review.en_US
dc.identifier.citationChételat, J.,Amyot, M., Arp, P., Blais, J.M., Depew, D., Emmerton, C.A. & van der Velden, S. (2015). Mercury in freshwater ecosystems of the Canadian Arctic: Recent advances on its cycling and fate. Science of the Total Environment, 509- 510, 41-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.151en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.151
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/9408
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherScience of the Total Environmenten_US
dc.subjectArctic
dc.subjectMercury
dc.subjectFresh water
dc.subjectBioaccumulation
dc.subjectBiogeochemistry
dc.subjectTemporal trends
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Geography
dc.titleMercury in freshwater ecosystems of the Canadian Arctic: Recent advances on its cycling and fateen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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