title: Using mercury isotopes to understand the bioaccumulation of Hg in the subtropical Pearl River Estuary, South China.
abstract: Coastal and estuarine regions are important areas of mercury pollution. Therefore, it is important to properly characterize the sources and bioaccumulation processes of mercury in these regions. Here, we present mercury stable isotopic compositions in 18 species of wild marine fish collected from the Pearl River Estuary (PRE), south China. Our results showed variations in mass-independent fractionation (Δ(199)Hg: +0.05 ± 0.10‰ to +0.59 ± 0.30‰) with a Δ(199)Hg/Δ(201)Hg of ∼1.26, suggesting that aqueous MeHg underwent photo-degradation prior to incorporation into the food chain. For the results, we discovered small but significant differences of Δ(199)Hg values among herbivorous, demersal, and carnivorous fish, indicating that different feeding guilds of fish may have incorporated MeHg with various degrees of photo-demethylation. The consistent mercury isotope compositions between fish feeding habitat and mercury sources in the estuary provide potentially important findings on the transformation and bioaccumulation of this toxic metal in subtropical coastal environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong; State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
authors.forename: Runsheng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
authors.forename: Xinbin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Junjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Wenxiong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Electronic address: cexdli@polyu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Xiangdong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063366:Estuaries; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism*; D020387:Food Chain; D008629:Mercury Isotopes / Q000378:metabolism; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D008629:Mercury Isotopes; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Bio-accumulation; Fish; Mercury; Mercury isotopes; Pearl River Estuary