Links
- More information: Publisher Index Page
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
I welcome this opportunity to come and preach the gospel according to Aiken, which is that to really understand ecosystems we need to pay much more attention to reactions involving natural organic matter. It's taken me many years to convince my colleagues of the important role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the methylation of mercury. Methylmercury is a nasty player - it's a very efficient bioaccumulator that rockets up through the food chain, so even the very low concentrations (nanograms per liter) found in many ecosystems are significant. In most aquatic environments mercury is atmospherically deposited. Here in the Delta, we also have mercury from naturally occurring deposits, as well as from historic mercury and gold mining, coming in from the upstream watershed. Methylmercury is produced at the sediment-water interface by sulfate-reducing bacteria.
| Publication type | Conference Paper |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Conference Paper |
| Title | Carbon, sulfur, and mercury - A biogeochemical axis of evil |
| Year Published | 2004 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | CALFED Bay-Delta Program |
| Publisher location | Sacramento, CA |
| Contributing office(s) | California Water Science Center |
| Description | 2 p. |
| Larger Work Type | Book |
| Larger Work Subtype | Conference publication |
| Larger Work Title | Proceedings of the 2004 CALFED Science Conference |
| First page | 54 |
| Last page | 55 |
| Public Comments | This publication is part of Section 5: Water Quality. |
| Conference Title | Getting Results: Integrating Science and Management to Achieve System-Level Responses (2004 CALFED Science Conference) |
| Conference Location | Sacramento, CA |
| Conference Date | October 4-6, 2004 |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |