Methylmercury cycling in boreal forest uplands

ISBN-13: 9783639144994 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 160 str.

Britt Hall

Opis

An important consequence of reservoir creation is theproduction and bioaccumulation of neurotoxicmethylmercury through the food web into fish. TheFLooded Upland Dynamics EXperiment (FLUDEX) at theExperimental Lakes Area in NW Ontario tested the hypothesis that methylmercury production inreservoirs is related to the amount and decomposition of flooded organic matter. From1999-2001, three upland forests that varied in theamounts of organic carbon stored in vegetation andsoils were flooded from spring to autumn with loworganic carbon, low methylmercury water pumped from anear-by lake. Within the framework of the FLUDEX,this study examined whole-reservoir rates ofmethylation or demethylation based on netmethylmercury exports from reservoirs andmethylmercury pools in soils, periphyton,zooplankton and fish. This whole-ecosystem scaleresearch was complemented with two smaller studiesdesigned to examine the process of mercurymethylation in reservoirs. This study can assisthydroelectric utilities in making informed decisionsabout site selection for future reservoirdevelopment to reduce mercury contamination ofreservoir fisheries.

O autorze

Dr. Britt Hall completed her Ph.D. at the University of Alberta
and the Experimental Lakes Area in NW Ontario. She also worked as
a post doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Her current work examines mercury cycling in prairie wetlands in
Saskatchewan where she is an assistant professor at the
University of Regina.