Ecosystem Responses to Changed Atmospheric Mercury Load: Results from Seven Years of Mercury Loading to Lake 658
Abstract
The response of fish methylmercury concentrations to changes in mercury deposition has been difficult to establish because sediments/soils contain large pools of historical contamination, and many factors in addition to deposition affect fish mercury. To test directly the response of fish contamination to changing mercury deposition, we are conducting the METAALICUS study, a whole-ecosystem experiment, increasing the mercury load to a lake and its watershed by the addition of enriched stable mercury isotopes. The isotopes allowed us to distinguish between experimentally applied mercury and mercury already present in the ecosystem and to examine bioaccumulation of mercury deposited to different parts of the watershed. Loading began in 2001 and ended in 2007. In this paper we will present mercury and methylmercury budgets for the study lake for the entire 7 year loading period. Overall, we increased the total Hg load to L658 and its watershed by roughly a factor of 3. However, we only increased the Hg load the lake itself by about 2X, since, during the seven years of addition, almost none of the Hg spike deposited to the watershed was transported all the way to the lake. Spike Hg concentrations in lake water rose each year during the open-water loading period and declined rapidly each winter. Methylmercury production in the lake responded rapidly to changes in mercury load during the first year of addition. After about 3 years, the increase in MeHg in lake water and in surface sediments slowed, suggesting that MeHg production was approaching a new level, or different rate, in response to the increased Hg load. We will discuss major input and loss terms for newly deposited Hg, the timing and proportionality of response, the timing and locations of MeHg production within the lake.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUSM.B13D..01G
- Keywords:
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- 0448 Geomicrobiology;
- 0458 Limnology (1845;
- 4239;
- 4942);
- 0461 Metals