Contrasting mercury contamination scenarios and site susceptibilities confound fish mercury burdens in Suriname, South America.

ABSTRACT: In Suriname, mercury (Hg) use has recently increased because of gold mining, which has put fish-reliant communities (e.g., Indigenous and Tribal) at risk of enhanced Hg exposure through the riverine fish these communities consume. To quantify how the magnitude of these risks change according to location and time, we measured total mercury (HgT) in fish at sites downstream and upstream of an artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) operation in 2004-2005 and in 2017-2018. We tested whether fish HgT burdens over dynamic ranges were increased. Surprisingly, our findings did not support broadly increased fish Hg burden over time or that proximity to ASGM was diagnostic to fish HgT-burden. Subsequently, we elected to test the HgT stable isotope ratios on a set of freshly collected 2020 fish

SUBMITTER: Vreedzaam A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10756560 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature