Relationship between mercury accumulation in young-of-the-year yellow perch and water-level fluctuations

Environmental Science & Technology
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Abstract

A three-year (2001−2003) monitoring effort of 14 northeastern Minnesota lakes was conducted to document relationships between water-level fluctuations and mercury bioaccumulation in young-of-the-year (YOY) yellow perch (Perca flavescens) collected in the fall of each year at fixed locations. Six of those lakes are located within or adjacent to Voyageurs National Park and are influenced by dams on the outlets of Rainy and Namakan lakes. One site on Sand Point Lake coincides with a location that has nine years of previous monitoring suitable for addressing the same issue over a longer time frame. Mean mercury concentrations in YOY yellow perch at each sampling location varied significantly from year to year. For the 12-year monitoring site on Sand Point Lake, values ranged from 38 ng gww-1 in 1998 to 200 ng gww-1 in 2001. For the 14-lake study, annual mean concentrations ranged by nearly a factor of 2, on average, for each lake over the three years of record. One likely factor responsible for these wide variations is that annual water-level fluctuations are strongly correlated with mercury levels in YOY perch for both data sets.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Relationship between mercury accumulation in young-of-the-year yellow perch and water-level fluctuations
Series title Environmental Science & Technology
DOI 10.1021/es050471r
Volume 39
Issue 23
Year Published 2005
Language English
Publisher ACS Publications
Contributing office(s) Columbia Environmental Research Center
Description 7 p.
First page 9237
Last page 9243
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