Mercury transport and human exposure from global marine fisheries.

Human activities have increased the global circulation of mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Mercury can be converted into methylmercury, which biomagnifies along aquatic food chains and leads to high exposure in fish-eating populations. Here we quantify temporal trends in the ocean-to-land transport of total mercury and methylmercury from fisheries and we estimate potential human mercury intake through fish consumption in 175 countries. Mercury export from the ocean increased over time as a function of fishing pressure, especially on upper-trophic-level organisms. In 2014, over 13 metric tonnes of mercury were exported from the ocean. Asian countries were important contributors of mercury export in the last decades and the western Pacific Ocean was identified as the main source. Estimates of per capita mercury exposure through fish consumption showed that populations in 38% of the 175 countries assessed, mainly insular and developing nations, were exposed to doses of methylmercury above governmental thresholds. Our study shows temporal trends and spatial patterns of Hg transport by fisheries. Given the high mercury intake through seafood consumption observed in several understudied yet vulnerable coastal communities, we recommend a comprehensive assessment of the health exposure risk of those populations.

Importance of elemental mercury in lake sediments.

Mercury (Hg) redox changes in sediments are poorly studied and understood, even though they potentially control Hg availability for methylation and can alter sediment-water Hg exchange. Elemental Hg (Hg(0)) concentrations in sediments of two Canadian Shield lakes were assessed by thermodesorption. Hg(0) concentrations in sediments varied between 6.3 and 60.3 pg g(-1) (wet weight) which represented 7.4-28.4% of total mercury (HgT) concentration. Hg(0) concentrations were similar in both lakes. Hg(0) was rapidly adsorbed on sediments in controlled adsorption experiments and surface sediments sampled in summer had a stronger affinity for Hg(0) than deeper sediments and sediments sampled in fall. This adsorption was positively correlated to organic matter content and negatively related to particle grain size, pH and oxygen concentration in overlying water. This study demonstrates that Hg(0) is a prevalent species in sediments, but not in porewater, because of the high sorptive capacity of sediments towards Hg(0). Its potential availability towards Hg methylating bacteria remains to be determined.