Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Is It Appropriate To Composite Fish Samples For Mercury Trend Monitoring And Consumption Advisories?, Ken G. Drouillard, Nilima Gandhi, Satyendra P. Bhavsar, Sarah B. Gewurtz, George B. Arhonditsis, Steve Petro

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Monitoring mercury levels in fish can be costly because variation by space, time, and fish type/size needs to be captured. Here, we explored if compositing fish samples to decrease analytical costs would reduce the effectiveness of the monitoring objectives. Six compositing methods were evaluated by applying them to an existing extensive dataset and examining their performance in reproducing the fish consumption advisories and temporal trends. The methods resulted in varying amount (average 34-72%) of reductions in samples, but all (except one) reproduced advisories very well (96-97% of the advisories did not change or were one category more restrictive compared to …