mercury – Laboratoire LEMAR UMR 6539

Hydrothermal mercury: the natural history of a contaminant

News à la Une, news homepage, publication

Our colleague Hélène Planquette participated in an international study coordinated by the CNRS aiming to estimate the contribution of hydrothermal sources to the mercury stock present in the oceans.

This study has just been published in the journal Nature Geoscience and is the subject of a CNRS press release:

An international team of researchers, coordinated by the CNRS (see inset), has established the first global estimate of hydrothermal mercury (Hg) emissions from mid-ocean ridges. The UN Minamata Convention on Mercury aims to reduce human exposure to toxic mercury by reducing anthropogenic emissions. We are primarily exposed through the consumption of fish that bioaccumulate Hg from the ocean. The current paradigm is that anthropogenic mercury emissions (currently 3,100 tons per year) are responsible for a 21% increase in the global oceanic mercury reservoir. This estimate is inaccurate because we do not know how much natural mercury was present in the ocean before the start of anthropogenic emissions.

We are also unable to quantify the impact of anthropogenic emissions on Hg levels in fish. Hydrothermalism is the only direct source of natural Hg to the ocean. Previous studies, based solely on hydrothermal fluid measurements, suggested that hydrothermal Hg inputs could range from 20 to 2,000 tons per year. This new study used measurements of hydrothermal plumes, seawater, and rock cores in addition to fluid measurements from the Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse (TAG) hydrothermal source on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The combination of observations suggests that the majority of enriched Hg in the fluids would be diluted in seawater, and a small fraction would precipitate locally. Extrapolation of the results indicates that the overall hydrothermal Hg flux from mid-ocean ridges is low (1.5 to 65 tons per year) compared to anthropogenic Hg emissions. Although this suggests that the majority of Hg in the ocean is of anthropogenic origin, it also raises hope that strict implementation of emission reductions under the Minamata Convention will reduce mercury levels in fish and human exposure.

Article Reference:

Torres-Rodriguez, N., Yuan, J., Petersen, S. et al. Mercury fluxes from hydrothermal venting at mid-ocean ridges constrained by measurements. Nat. Geosci. (2023).

26/12/2023/by Sebastien Herve

Evidence that Pacific tuna mercury levels are driven by marine methylmercury production and anthropogenic inputs

article of the month

Abstract

Pacific Ocean tuna is among the most-consumed seafood products but contains relatively high levels of the neurotoxin methylmercury. Limited observations suggest tuna mercury levels vary in space and time, yet the drivers are not well understood. Here, we map mercury concentrations in skipjack tuna across the Pacific Ocean and build generalized additive models to quantify the anthropogenic, ecological, and biogeochemical drivers. Skipjack mercury levels display a fivefold spatial gradient, with maximum concentrations in the northwest near Asia, intermediate values in the east, and the lowest levels in the west, southwest, and central Pacific. Large spatial differences can be explained by the depth of the seawater methylmercury peak near low-oxygen zones, leading to enhanced tuna mercury concentrations in regions where oxygen depletion is shallow. Despite this natural biogeochemical control, the mercury hotspot in tuna caught near Asia is explained by elevated atmospheric mercury concentrations and/or mercury river inputs to the coastal shelf. While we cannot ignore the legacy mercury contribution from other regions to the Pacific Ocean (e.g., North America and Europe), our results suggest that recent anthropogenic mercury release, which is currently largest in Asia, contributes directly to present-day human mercury exposure.

Graphical abstract

Spatial variability of skipjack mercury concentrations. Smoothed spatial contour maps of (A) observed and (B) standardized Hg concentrations (micrograms ⋅ grams−1, dw) in skipjack white muscle samples from the Pacific Ocean. The black dots represent the location of skipjack samples. Ocean areas correspond to the sample origin: NWPO, CNPO, NEPO, EPO, SWPO, and WCPO. The transparent dots represent the location of seawater samples with available and published MeHg data

Highlights

Humans are exposed to toxic methylmercury mainly by consuming marine fish. New environmental policies under the Minamata Convention rely on a yet-poorly-known understanding of how mercury emissions translate into fish methylmercury levels. Here, we provide the first detailed map of mercury concentrations from skipjack tuna across the Pacific. Our study shows that the natural functioning of the global ocean has an important influence on tuna mercury concentrations, specifically in relation to the depth at which methylmercury concentrations peak in the water column. However, mercury inputs originating from anthropogenic sources are also detectable, leading to enhanced tuna mercury levels in the northwestern Pacific Ocean that cannot be explained solely by oceanic processes.

Reference

Anaïs Médieu, David Point, Takaaki Itai, Hélène Angot, Pearse J. Buchanan, Valérie Allain, Leanne Fuller, Shane Griffiths, David P. Gillikin, Jeroen E. Sonke, Lars-Eric Heimbürger-Boavida, Marie-Maëlle Desgranges, Christophe E. Menkes, Daniel J. Madigan, Pablo Brosset, Olivier Gauthier, Alessandro Tagliabue, Laurent Bopp, Anouk Verheyden, Anne Lorrain. Evidence that Pacific tuna mercury levels are driven by marine methylmercury production and anthropogenic inputs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2022, 119 (2) e2113032119; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2113032119

Read the article on PNAS website

12/01/2022/by sherve@univ-brest.fr

A Model of Mercury Distribution in Tuna from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean: Influence of Physiology, Ecology and Environmental Factors

article of the month

Patrick Houssard, David Point, Laura Tremblay-Boyer, Valérie Allain, Heidi Pethybridge, Jeremy Masbou, Bridget E. Ferriss, Pascale A. Baya, Christelle Lagane, Christophe E. Menkes, Yves Letourneur, et Anne Lorrain

ABSTRACT :

Information on ocean scale drivers of methylmercury levels and variability in tuna is scarce, yet crucial in the context of anthropogenic mercury (Hg) inputs and potential threats to human health. Here we assess Hg concentrations in three commercial tuna species (bigeye, yellowfin, and albacore, n = 1000) from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).
Models were developed to map regional Hg variance and understand the main drivers. Mercury concentrations are enriched in southern latitudes (10°S−20°S) relative to the equator (0°−10°S) for each species, with bigeye exhibiting the strongest spatial gradients. Fish size is the primary factor explaining Hg variance but physical oceanography also contributes, with higher Hg concentrations in regions exhibiting deeper thermoclines.
Tuna trophic position and oceanic primary productivity were of weaker importance. Predictive models perform well in the Central Equatorial Pacific and Hawaii, but underestimate Hg concentrations in the Eastern Pacific. A literature review from the global ocean indicates that size tends to govern tuna Hg concentrations, however regional information on vertical habitats, methylmercury production, and/or Hg inputs are needed to understand Hg distribution at a broader scale. Finally, this study establishes a geographical context of Hg levels to weigh the risks and benefits of tuna consumption in the WCPO.

Observed spatial variation in mercury concentrations (mg*kg −1 , dry weight) for bigeye, yellowfin, and albacore muscle samples captured in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. Gray lines outline the five biogeochemical regions as defined in Houssard et al., 2017: NPTG (North Pacific Tropical Gyre), WARMm (Warm Pool modified), PEQD (Pacific Equatorial Divergence), SPSGm (South Pacific Subtropical Gyre modified) and ARCHm (Archipelagic deep basins modified) along with AUS-TAZ (Australia-Tasmania) and NZ (New Zealand).

CITATION :

Houssard, P., Point, D., Tremblay-Boyer, L., Allain, V., Pethybridge, H., Masbou, J., Ferriss, B.E., Baya, P.A., Lagane, C., Menkes, C.E., Letourneur, Y., and Lorrain, A. 2019. A Model of Mercury Distribution in Tuna from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean: Influence of Physiology, Ecology and Environmental Factors. Environmental Science & Technology. doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b06058.

Click here for the journal website.

Click here for the IRD news about this study (in French).

05/02/2019/by titodemora

Tuna, a fish that is highly prized around the world, hides a toxin, methylmercury. According to this study, the content of this toxin in tunas in the Central and Southwest Pacific depends not only on their size and species but also on their geographical origin. This study highlights crucial results for advice on tuna consumption.