Abstract
We analyzed total mercury content (THg) and carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios in fish, subtidal macrobenthos, and particulate organic matter (POM) as a proxy for pelagic phytoplankton and attached microalgae as a proxy for microphytobenthos to investigate the mercury exposure pathway in fish. For four seasons, samples of the above-mentioned organisms were collected on five occasions (July and October 2018 and January, April, and July 2019) in Minamata Bay. Isotope analysis showed that Minamata Bay food web structures were almost entirely fueled by microphytobenthos. The THg values of the fish and macrobenthos species were positively correlated with their δ13C. This indicates that their diets, which were highly fueled by microphytobenthos, led to high THg bioaccumulation in both macrobenthos and fish. The feeding habits of fishes differ depending on the species, and they prey on organisms of many taxa, including fish (mainly Japanese anchovy), crabs, shrimp, copepods, annelids, and algae. Fish species that preyed on benthic crustaceans had high THg. These results suggest that the main pathway of Hg bioaccumulation in fish from Minamata Bay is the benthic food chain, which is primarily linked to benthic crustaceans fueled by microphytobenthos.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Mr. H. Shimasaki, Aitsu Marine Station, Kumamoto University, for his aid of macrobenthiosin macrobenthos sampling by the ship Dorphine Super Challenger II. We also thank Mrs. T. Hamazuki, Y. Hirakida, A. Tanoue, and T. Tanoue (Minamata Fishery Cooperative) for the collection ofcollecting fish samples. Ms. M. Onoue (National Institute for Minamata Disease) helped with sample sorting and mercury analysis. We also thank the two reviewers and the associate editor for their critical comments and invaluable suggestions, which were greatly helpful in improving our manuscript. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.
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This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI [Grant Nos., JP18K05699, JP18K11625, and JP20H03062 to K. Yamada and 22K05797 to K. Yoshino], MEXT, Japan, and the Special Fund of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan.
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KY: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, visualization, and writing—original draft. KY: Investigation, Resource, Writing—Review and Editing. MT: Validation-annelid taxonomy, writing—review, and editing. YT: Investigation, Review, and Editing. GK: Stable Sotope analysis, writing—review, and editing. TK contributed to writing, reviewing, and editing. KO: writing, reviewing, and editing. YH: Resource, writing—review, and editing. Megumi Yamamoto: writing, review, and editing.
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Yoshino, K., Yamada, K., Kanaya, G. et al. Food Web Structures and Mercury Exposure Pathway to Fish in Minamata Bay. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 85, 360–373 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-023-01040-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-023-01040-y