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SEPG 2085 - Date Awarded 2002
Testing the link between mercury accumulation and increasing trophic position in lake pike (Esox lucius L.)
Professor Roger Jones
Introduction (Excerpt)
An established paradigm in ecology and ecotoxicology is that harmful materials such as many organic pesticides and heavy metals become concentrated up food chains. As a consequence, top predators (such as lake pike, Esox lucius) often become highly contaminated with these pollutants. Based on this paradigm, The Finnish Environment Institute has conducted mercury surveys in Finland over a period of 30 years using standardized 1 kg pike as an indicator species for mercury pollution in lakes. Although mercury concentration in many larger Finnish lakes evidently has been slowly declining over recent decades, no equivalent decline has been detected in small forest lakes. This is probably because these small lakes usually have humic and acidic water, conditions which promote methylation of mercury.
Full report: SEPG2085
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