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Mercury in the Diatoms of Various Ecological Formations
- Source :
- Water, Air, and Soil Pollution
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Mercury is a neurotoxin, its main source in the human organism being fish and seafood. The first level in the marine food web is formed of planktonic and benthic photosynthetic microorganisms, which form a biofilm on the surface of the hard bottom (epilithon) or plants (epiphyton). They are carriers of nutritional as well as toxic substances and pass these on to subsequent levels of the trophic web. Their biomass is often dominated by diatoms. This was the basis for the presented study into Hg accumulation in epilithic, epiphytic and planktonic diatoms, which was carried out in 2012–2013 in the coastal zone of the Puck Lagoon and the Gulf of Gdańsk (southern Baltic). In this coastal area, both micro- and macroorganisms develop particularly intensively. The collected results indicate an increase in Hg concentration in the biofilm during the warm season which, with the lengthening of the vegetative period due to global warming in recent years, is of great significance. As a consequence, the annual mercury load entering the trophic web is larger in comparison with a year in which there is a long, cold winter. An important parameter influencing the accumulation of Hg was the function of those organisms from the biofilm-forming communities. In this case, the highest concentrations of Hg were measured in organisms forming high-profile guilds. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11270-018-3814-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Environmental Engineering
Microorganism
Epilithon
High-profile guild
chemistry.chemical_element
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Article
Phytoplankton
Environmental Chemistry
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Water Science and Technology
Trophic level
Diatoms
Ecology
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Ecological Modeling
fungi
Plankton
Pollution
Hg
Food web
Mercury (element)
Epiphyton
chemistry
Benthic zone
Environmental science
Epiphyte
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00496979
- Volume :
- 229
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Water, air, and soil pollution
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b88beee02e29abc9d6500144c684e23c