Selenium concentration in herring from the Baltic Sea tracks decadal and spatial trends in external sources.

ABSTRACT: Selenium (Se) has a narrow range between nutritionally optimal and toxic concentrations for many organisms, including fish and humans. However, the degree to which humans are affecting Se concentrations in coastal food webs with diffuse Se sources is not well described. Here we examine large-scale drivers of spatio-temporal variability in Se concentration in herring from the Baltic Sea (coastal sea) to explore the anthropogenic impact on a species from the pelagic food web. We analyze data from three herring muscle time series covering three decades (1979-2010) and herring liver time series from 20 stations across the Baltic Sea covering a fourth decade (2009-2019). We find a 0.7-2.0% per annum (n = 26-30) Se decline in herring muscle samples from 0.34 ± 0.02 μg g^-1 ww in

SUBMITTER: Soerensen AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9491286 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature