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Mercury concentrations in fish, plankton and water from three Western Atlantic estuaries
Author(s) -
Cocoros Glenn,
Cahn Phyllis H.,
Siler William
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1973.tb04500.x
Subject(s) - plankton , mercury (programming language) , biology , estuary , zooplankton , fishery , food chain , ecology , computer science , programming language
Total mercury concentrations were determined in the clupeid, Brevoortia tyrannus , from three estuaries of the Western Atlantic, and in the plankton on which they feed, as well as in the water sampled from the same localities. Although there was some indication that the food chain is a likely source of mercury contamination in these fish, as seen by the very much higher levels found in viscera compared with the rest of the fish, there was no evidence of strong food chain intensification. Fish mercury levels (0.3 to 0.5 part/10 6 dry wt) were about twice that for plankton (0.1–0.2 part/10 6 dry wt), with higher levels in phyto‐than in zooplankton.