Open ocean mercury source
Nature Geoscience
2013년8월26일
Microbes in the open ocean convert inorganic mercury into methylmercury, a toxic form that can be taken up by fish, reports a paper published online this week in Nature Geoscience. The findings suggest that open-ocean microbes, and not just microbes found in coastal sediments, contribute to the mercury contamination of the marine food web.
Joel Blum and colleagues examined the isotopic signature of mercury in nine species of fish sampled from the North Pacific Ocean, which feed at different depths. They find that isotopic patterns found in these fish can only be explained if 60-80% of the methylmercury consumed is produced by microbes below the ocean surface mixed layer, rather than sourced from surface waters.
doi: 10.1038/ngeo1918
리서치 하이라이트
-
8월18일
Environment: Protecting global forest biodiversityNature
-
8월17일
Climate change: North Atlantic hurricane season starting earlierNature Communications
-
8월17일
Climate change: Energy institutions’ decarbonization scenarios evaluated against the Paris AgreementNature Communications
-
8월16일
Food: Modelling global famine and associated deaths from nuclear weapon detonationNature Food
-
8월12일
Climate change: The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the worldCommunications Earth & Environment
-
8월11일
Ecology: Forest responses to climate changeNature
