Accession Number:
ADA439920
Title:
Bioaccumulation of Mercury in Riverine Periphyton
Descriptive Note:
Corporate Author:
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WASHINGTON DC
Personal Author(s):
Report Date:
2005-01-01
Pagination or Media Count:
13.0
Abstract:
In aquatic ecosystems, algae are the primary producers and the base of the food web. To date, there has been little research on the role of benthic algae periphyton in the bioaccumulation of mercury Hg in riverine systems -- a key step of the process of bioaccumulation from the physical environment water and sediments to higher aquatic organisms invertebrates, fish, and others. Periphyton has been shown to have an important role in the transfer of mercury in wetlands of the Florida Everglades and in some situations served as the host site for mercury methylation, which is the key process controlling mercury toxicity in the environment. Pickhardt and others 2002 found that algal blooms in lakes resulted in reduced bioaccumulation of mercury in algal-rich eutrophic lake systems due to decreases in the concentration of mercury per algal cell.
Descriptors:
Subject Categories:
- Hydrology, Limnology and Potamology
- Water Pollution and Control