Mercury Contamination in an Indicator Fish Species from Andean Amazonian Rivers Affected by Petroleum Extraction. Webb, J., Oliver Coomes, B., T., Nicolas Mainville, B., & Donna Mergler, B. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.
abstract   bibtex   
Elevated mercury (Hg) concentrations in fish from Amazonia have been associated with gold-mining, hydroelectric dams and deforestation but few studies con-sider the role of petroleum extraction. Hg levels were determined in fish samples collected in three river basins in Ecuador and Peru with contrasting petroleum exploitation and land-use characteristics. The non-migratory, piscivo-rous species, Hoplias malabaricus, was used as a bioindi-cator. The rate of Hg increase with body weight for this species was significantly higher on the Corrientes River, near the site of a recent oil spill, than on the other two rivers. In the absence of substantial deforestation and other anthropogenic sources in the Corrientes River basin, this finding suggests that oil contamination in Andean Amazonia may have a significant impact on Hg levels in fish. Fish provide a high quality source of food in rural Ama-zonia but mercury (Hg) contamination from anthropogenic sources including gold mining (Akagi et al. 1995), hydro-electric dam reservoirs (Kasper et al. 2012) and defor-estation (Roulet et al. 1999) is a growing health concern. The primary pathway for contamination is methylation of mobilized inorganic mercury and bioaccumulation up the aquatic food chain. Hg levels in fish are positively corre-lated with both the size and age of fish (Scott 1972) and predatory fish are more responsive to differences in envi-ronmental Hg levels, concentrating up to 10 6 times the levels in water (Baudo et al. 1990). Research in Amazonia indicates that Hg contamination causes measurable neuro-logical harm at lower levels than originally thought (for a review: Passos and Mergler 2009). Few studies have assessed Hg levels in fish in the Andean Amazon despite the presence of several potential sources. The Andes is one of the Earth's main mercurif-erous belts (Nriagu and Becker 2003) and volcanic soils are rich in Hg (Hernandez et al. 2004), with average levels in Andisols of the Ecuadorian Amazon as high as 225 ng/g (Mainville et al. 2006). Soil erosion, provoked by deforestation, leads to the leaching of naturally occurring Hg to aquatic environments (Mainville et al.
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 title = {Mercury Contamination in an Indicator Fish Species from Andean Amazonian Rivers Affected by Petroleum Extraction},
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 abstract = {Elevated mercury (Hg) concentrations in fish from Amazonia have been associated with gold-mining, hydroelectric dams and deforestation but few studies con-sider the role of petroleum extraction. Hg levels were determined in fish samples collected in three river basins in Ecuador and Peru with contrasting petroleum exploitation and land-use characteristics. The non-migratory, piscivo-rous species, Hoplias malabaricus, was used as a bioindi-cator. The rate of Hg increase with body weight for this species was significantly higher on the Corrientes River, near the site of a recent oil spill, than on the other two rivers. In the absence of substantial deforestation and other anthropogenic sources in the Corrientes River basin, this finding suggests that oil contamination in Andean Amazonia may have a significant impact on Hg levels in fish. Fish provide a high quality source of food in rural Ama-zonia but mercury (Hg) contamination from anthropogenic sources including gold mining (Akagi et al. 1995), hydro-electric dam reservoirs (Kasper et al. 2012) and defor-estation (Roulet et al. 1999) is a growing health concern. The primary pathway for contamination is methylation of mobilized inorganic mercury and bioaccumulation up the aquatic food chain. Hg levels in fish are positively corre-lated with both the size and age of fish (Scott 1972) and predatory fish are more responsive to differences in envi-ronmental Hg levels, concentrating up to 10 6 times the levels in water (Baudo et al. 1990). Research in Amazonia indicates that Hg contamination causes measurable neuro-logical harm at lower levels than originally thought (for a review: Passos and Mergler 2009). Few studies have assessed Hg levels in fish in the Andean Amazon despite the presence of several potential sources. The Andes is one of the Earth's main mercurif-erous belts (Nriagu and Becker 2003) and volcanic soils are rich in Hg (Hernandez et al. 2004), with average levels in Andisols of the Ecuadorian Amazon as high as 225 ng/g (Mainville et al. 2006). Soil erosion, provoked by deforestation, leads to the leaching of naturally occurring Hg to aquatic environments (Mainville et al.},
 bibtype = {article},
 author = {Webb, Jena and Oliver Coomes, Bullet T and Nicolas Mainville, Bullet and Donna Mergler, Bullet},
 journal = {Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology}
}

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