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Mercury Bioaccumulation and Bioaccumulation Factors for Everglades Mosquitofish as Related to Sulfate: A Re-analysis of Julian II (2013)

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Abstract

The Everglades, an ecosystem of international significance, has elevated biota mercury levels representing risk to human and wildlife consumers of fish. Given the critical role of sulfate in the methylation of mercury, and because there is a significant agricultural contribution, one potential means of reducing these mercury levels is reducing Everglades sulfate inputs. Julian II (Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 90:329–332, 2013) conducted regression modeling of the relationship between surface water sulfate concentrations and Gambusia spp. mercury bioconcentration factors across the major hydrologic subunits of the Everglades, and used those results to draw conclusions about the role of sulfate in the cycling of mercury in the Everglades. We however demonstrate a number of fundamental problems with the analysis, interpretation and conclusions. As a result, we strongly caution against using the results of Julian II (Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 90:329–332, 2013) to formulate management decisions regarding mitigation of the Everglades mercury problem.

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Notes

  1. The EvPA comprises the following four major hydrologic units – the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (LNWR), Water Conservation Area 2 (WCA2), Water Conservation Area 3 (WCA3), and Everglades National Park (ENP).

  2. Gambusia spp. Hg concentrations originally reported by USEPA have units of ng/g, while methyl Hg concentrations are reported as ng/L. As a result, the initial ratios were multiplied by 1,000 to express BAF as essentially dimensionless – i.e., (ng/kg)/(ng/L).

  3. R-EMAP measured total organic carbon for the three sets of wet/dry cycle sampling conducted prior to 2005, and supplanted TOC measurements with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) measurements in 2005. Since TOC typically correlates closely with DOC, we concatenated the TOC and DOC values as a single parameter for our statistical modeling (henceforth referred to TOC).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Cindy Gilmour of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Bill Orem, Dave Krabbenhoft, and George Aiken of the US Geological Survey for constructive discussions on mercury, sulfate and DOC. We also thank Dan Scheidt and Pete Kalla of the US Environmental Protection Agency and Ted Lange of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for the use of their data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aqua Lux Lucis, Inc., PO Box 141363, Gainesville, FL, 32614, USA

    Curtis D. Pollman

  2. Institute of Public Health, Florida A&M University, 1515 South Martin Luther King Blvd, Tallahassee, FL, 32307, USA

    Donald M. Axelrad

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  1. Curtis D. Pollman
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  2. Donald M. Axelrad
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Correspondence to Donald M. Axelrad.

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Pollman, C.D., Axelrad, D.M. Mercury Bioaccumulation and Bioaccumulation Factors for Everglades Mosquitofish as Related to Sulfate: A Re-analysis of Julian II (2013). Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 93, 509–516 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-014-1384-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-014-1384-5

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