Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

From Forests To Fish: Mercury In Mountain Lake Food Webs Influenced By Factors At Multiple Scales, Ariana M. Chiapella, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Angela Strecker

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Mountain lakes, while seemingly pristine, have been subjected to historical fish stocking practices and exposure to atmospherically deposited contaminants like mercury. Mercury bioaccumulation in these ecosystems varies widely due to strong environmental gradients, and there are complex, hierarchical factors that affect mercury transport and loading, methylmercury production, and food web biomagnification. We sought to assess how representative variables associated with watershed, lake, and food web-scale processes—specifically, catchment tree cover, lake benthic primary production, and fish diet, respectively—are associated with mercury concentrations in mountain lake fish. Mean fish mercury concentrations varied threefold between lakes, with nearshore tree cover and fish diet …