(Table 1) Age, fork length, and tissue d15N and element concentration of arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) from Lake Hazen

DOI

Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus L.), the top predator in High Arctic lakes, often is used as a bioindicator of Hg contamination in Arctic aquatic ecosystems. The present study investigated effects of trophic position, size, and age of Arctic char in Lake Hazen, the largest lake in the Canadian High Arctic (81°50'N, 70°25'W), on Hg bioaccumulation. In addition, several essential (Se, K) and nonessential elements (Tl, Cs) in char muscle tissue were examined to compare their behavior to that of Hg. Trophic position of Arctic char was identified by stable isotope (d15N) signature. Temporal trends of Hg from seven sampling campaigns over a 16-year period (1990-2006) were investigated for the overall data and for one trophic class. Concentrations of Hg were not correlated with age but were positively related to fork length and trophic position. Large char with greater d15N signatures (>12 per mil) had larger Hg concentrations (0.09-1.63 µg/g wet wt) than small char with smaller d15N signatures (<12 per mil, 0.03-0.32 µg/g wet wt), indicating that Hg concentrations increased with trophic position. Nonessential Cs and Tl showed relationships to age, length, and trophic position similar to those of Hg, indicating their potential to bioaccumulate and biomagnify. Essential Se and K did not show these relationships. Concentrations of Hg were adjusted using d15N, leading to less within-year variability and a more consistent temporal trend. The d15N-adjusted trend showed no decline of Hg in Arctic char from Lake Hazen (1990-2006) in the overall data set and in the small morphotype. Trends for the same period before the adjustment were not significant for the overall data set, but a slight decrease was apparent in the small morphotype. The results confirm the need to consider trophic position and fish size when monitoring temporal trends of Hg, particularly for species with different morphotypes.

The 1990 stable isotope data is estimated based on 1992 relationship of length and d15N (y = 19.661x - 40.16). Data extracted in the frame of a joint ICSTI/PANGAEA IPY effort, see http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150150

Supplement to: Gantner, Nikolaus; Power, Michael; Babaluk, John A; Reist, James D; Köck, Günther; Lockhart, Lyle W; Solomon, Keith R; Muir, Derek C G (2009): Temporal trends of mercury, cesium, potassium, selenium, and thallium in Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) from Lake Hazen, Nunavut, Canada: effects of trophic position, size, and age. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 28(2), 254-263

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.810105
Related Identifier IsSupplementTo https://doi.org/10.1897/08-054.1
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.810105
Provenance
Creator Gantner, Nikolaus ORCID logo; Power, Michael; Babaluk, John A; Reist, James D; Köck, Günther; Lockhart, Lyle W; Solomon, Keith R; Muir, Derek C G ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2009
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 565 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-71.000 LON, 81.800 LAT); Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Temporal Coverage Begin 1990-06-15T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2006-06-15T00:00:00Z