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‘Ghost fleas’ bring toxic mercury up from the depths of prairie lakes | Science | AAAS
How toxic mercury moves through the environment—and accumulates in the fish that people eat—has been known for decades. Now, scientists have discovered an unexpected way that the neurotoxin circulates in lakes, hitching a late-night ride inside small predatory crustaceans dubbed “ghost fleas.” The finding helps explain why some lake fish contain surprising amounts of mercury. It also suggests researchers who sample lakes only during the day might be missing important clues to how those ecosystems work.
“It’s a cool food web story,” says Celia Chen, an aquatic ecologist at Dartmouth College who was not involved in the research. “This idea that mercury would migrate up—it’s novel.”
Most mercury pollution comes from small-scale gold refining and coal burning. It rises into the atmosphere, circulates globally and then falls again in rain and snow. When mercury reaches low-oxygen environments, such as wetlands and lake beds, bacteria convert it to a toxic form called methylmercury that can accumulate in plants and animals. In humans, exposure results in the highest risk to fetuses and young children, who can experience developmental problems.
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It would be an interesting project to look at inhibitors of the enzyme(s) that convert metallic mercury into its Hg-methyl derivative, which builds up in fish & other animals.
How toxic mercury moves through the environment—and accumulates in the fish that people eat—has been known for decades. Now, scientists have discovered an unexpected way that the neurotoxin circulates in lakes, hitching a late-night ride inside small predatory crustaceans dubbed “ghost fleas.” The finding helps explain why some lake fish contain surprising amounts of mercury. It also suggests researchers who sample lakes only during the day might be missing important clues to how those ecosystems work.
“It’s a cool food web story,” says Celia Chen, an aquatic ecologist at Dartmouth College who was not involved in the research. “This idea that mercury would migrate up—it’s novel.”
Most mercury pollution comes from small-scale gold refining and coal burning. It rises into the atmosphere, circulates globally and then falls again in rain and snow. When mercury reaches low-oxygen environments, such as wetlands and lake beds, bacteria convert it to a toxic form called methylmercury that can accumulate in plants and animals. In humans, exposure results in the highest risk to fetuses and young children, who can experience developmental problems.
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It would be an interesting project to look at inhibitors of the enzyme(s) that convert metallic mercury into its Hg-methyl derivative, which builds up in fish & other animals.