Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 212, Issue -, Pages 574-583Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.03.003
Keywords
Arctic char; Mercury; Subcellular partitioning; Metals
Categories
Funding
- Northern Contaminants Program
- NSERC [371567-2009]
- Canada Research Chair program
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We sampled landlocked Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) from four lakes (Small, 9-Mile, North, Amituk) in the Canadian High Arctic that span a gradient of mercury contamination. Metals (Hg, Se, TI, and Fe) were measured in char tissues to determine their relationships with health indices (relative condition factor and hepatosomatic index), stable nitrogen isotope ratios, and liver histology. A subcellular partitioning procedure was employed to determine how metals were distributed between potentially sensitive and detoxified compartments of Arctic char livers from a low- and high-mercury lake (Small Lake and Amituk Lake, respectively). Differences in health indices and metal concentrations among char populations were likely related to differences in feeding ecology. Concentrations of Hg, Se, and TI were highest in the livers of Amituk char, whereas concentrations of Fe were highest in Small and 9-Mile char. At the subcellular level we found that although Amituk char had higher concentrations of TI in whole liver than Small Lake char, they maintained a greater proportion of this metal in detoxified fractions, suggesting an attempt at detoxification. Mercury was found mainly in potentially sensitive fractions of both Small and Amituk Lake char, indicating that Arctic char are not effectively detoxifying this metal. Histological changes in char livers, mainly in the form of melano-macrophage aggregates and hepatic fibrosis, could be linked to the concentrations and subcellular distributions of essential or non-essential metals. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available