Mercury Dynamics and Bioaccumulation Risk Assessment in Three Gold Mining-Impacted Amazon River Basins.

ABSTRACT: Mercury contamination from gold mining in the Amazon poses significant environmental and health threats to the biome and its local populations. The recent expansion of non-industrial mining areas has severely impacted territories occupied by traditional communities. To address the lack of sampling data in the region and better understand mercury dynamics, this study used the probabilistic model SERAFM to estimate the mercury distribution and bioaccumulation in fish. The analysis covered 8,259 sub-basins across three major Amazonian basins: the Branco, Tapajós and Xingu rivers. The findings revealed increasing downstream mercury levels, with notable accumulations in the main watercourses influenced by methylation processes and mining releases. The projected concentrations showed that an ave

SUBMITTER: Domingues VS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11359172 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature