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Abstract
Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that affects human and ecosystem health. Hg is a serious threat especially for the marine environment, in which it undergoes bioaccumulation and biomagnification, reaching elevated concentrations in fish and other seafood. The research aimed at investigating the trophodynamics of Hg in the basal links of the marine food chain: benthic macrofauna and its main food sources (i.e. suspended and sediment organic matter, micro- and macrophytobenthos). The results showed that both the amount and the origin of organic matter affected the Hg level in particular trophic groups of macrozoobenthos. The intensive inflow of terrestrial material influenced the enrichment of suspended particles and microphytobenthos in Hg, leading to increased Hg concentrations in filter-feeding macrofauna. The input of Hg-rich marine matter transported from the deeper parts of the Gulf of Gdańsk along with the near-bottom currents caused higher Hg levels in deposit feeders. The biomagnification factor (BMF) of Hg through benthic food web was dependent on environmental conditions occurring in the studied areas, in particular, factors favouring the growth and fecundity of macrofauna. Consequently, as a result of biodilution, the trophic transfer of Hg was less effective in a more productive region, despite the elevated Hg concentrations in dietary components of the macrofauna and in the surrounding environment.
Highlights
Mercury (Hg) is considered to be one of the most dangerous global environmental pollutants and has been the subject of numerous scientific studies over many years
Our results show that in the case of coastal areas, the Hg leaching from the land plays an important role in the Hg load reaching the marine environment (Bełdowska et al 2016a; Jędruch et al 2017; Kwasigroch et al 2018)
The sampling stations located in the Puck Lagoon (Fig. 1) differed in terms of environmental conditions and type of bottom
Summary
Mercury (Hg) is considered to be one of the most dangerous global environmental pollutants and has been the subject of numerous scientific studies over many years. The Baltic, as a semi-enclosed sea with limited water exchange, surrounded by industrialised areas, has been the scene of uncontrolled discharge of contaminants containing Hg for decades. In the case of the marine environment, this period is too short to show a significant reduction in the Hg concentration in its components (in other words, to get the ecosystem response to the introduced emission restrictions).
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