Influence of dietary carbon on mercury bioaccumulation in streams of the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the Coastal Plain of South Carolina, USA.

ABSTRACT: We studied lower food webs in streams of two mercury-sensitive regions to determine whether variations in consumer foraging strategy and resultant dietary carbon signatures accounted for observed within-site and among-site variations in consumer mercury concentration. We collected macroinvertebrates (primary consumers and predators) and selected forage fishes from three sites in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, and three sites in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina, for analysis of mercury (Hg) and stable isotopes of carbon (δ(13)C) and nitrogen (δ(15)N). Among primary consumers, scrapers and filterers had higher MeHg and more depleted δ(13)C than shredders from the same site. Variation in δ(13)C accounted for up to 34 % of within-site variation in MeHg among primary consumers, beyond

SUBMITTER: Riva-Murray K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3526734 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature