ENV334H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Acacia Koa, Biological Pump, Marine Mammal
Document Summary
Primary anthropogenic sources: fossil fuel burning (coal, crude oil, mining, ore processing. Secondary anthropogenic sources: recycling things that might have had mercury, electronic devices, batteries. Remobilization & re-emission: land use change, burning, surface emission. Biomagnification: contaminants magnify through the food web, get high concentrations at top of food web, comes from absorption and food. Mercury in ontario trout: we know we"re (canada) emitting 7 tonnes of mercury per year. In 2006 found 65 tonnes of mercury deposited: = most of it comes from other places (china and usa) If have more bacteria in lake will end up with more mercury because more microbial activity to methylate it. In ontario, amount of mercury in trout was related to trophic position: measured with del nitrogen 15 (represents trophic position) In different lakes, could have trout at different trophic levels: study in different lakes, mercury level well related to trophic position. Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane: ddt, 2 phenyl rings, chlorine atoms.