Assessing and predicting the changes for inorganic mercury and methylmercury concentrations in surface waters of a tidal estuary (Adour Estuary, SW France)

Mercury's poisonous pulse: Blazing a new path for aquatic conservation with eco-friendly mitigation strategies

Many compounds and inorganic elements released from natural and anthropogenic origins contaminate the environment and are implicated in catastrophes involving most biologically driven ecological processes and public health. One such element is Mercury. Mercury exists in both inorganic elemental form and the more metabolically active molecular form e.g. methyl mercury. They enjoy wide applications in medicine and form key components of numerous electrical and electronic devices. Unfortunately, severe health and adverse physiological conditions have developed from the impacts of mercury on the flora and fauna of both aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Despite being present in tiny amounts in water bodies, mercury undergoes a process of trophic amplification where its concentration increases significantly as it moves up the food chain through processes like biomethylation, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification. Most current methods for removing mercury through physical and chemical means have significant drawbacks, including high costs, complex technical requirements, and harmful secondary effects on the environment. Therefore, only environmentally friendly and sustainable approaches are acceptable to mitigate the risks to public health and ecosystem damage. Bioremediation involves the use of biological systems, i.e., plants and microbes, to recover mercury from the environment. The application of microorganisms in remediation is the hallmark of all mitigation strategies targeted at mercury pollution in the soil and aquatic matrices. The present paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on mercury pollution in the environment (i.e., atmosphere, soil, water, and sediments). Many symptoms of mercury poisoning in fish, birds, and other animals, including man, were extensively treated. Information on the existing physico-chemical treatment methods, as well as the more ecologically friendly bioremediation measures available, was summarized. The importance of strengthening existing international policies, commitments, protocols, and alignments on the control of anthropogenic generation, treatment, and reduction of mercury discharges to the environment was highlighted.

Transport patterns and hydrodynamic context of the MERITE-HIPPOCAMPE cruise: Implications for contaminants distribution and origin

This study aims at characterizing the hydrodynamic context and transport patterns that prevailed during the MERITE-HIPPOCAMPE cruise to assist in the interpretation of in-situ observations. The main physical attributes and structures (mesoscale eddies as well as fine-scale fronts and filaments) are analyzed based on various physical diagnostics. They were computed from satellite data and data-assimilative model outputs to describe ocean dynamics. The Northern and Algerian Currents were prominent features during the cruise while the western basin is divided by the vertically-tilted Balearic front. Temperature and salinity were used to distinguish different water masses at both surface and sub-surface. Sea-level anomalies, relative vorticity, and Okubo-Weiss parameter distributions have shown the presence of marked eddies around stations St10 and St11. Furthermore, Finite-Size Lyaponuv Exponents revealed that the former was rather located on a fine-scale filament near the edge of a cyclonic eddy while the latter was closer to the core of an anticyclone. Nearshore thermal fronts were detected with the Belkin and O'Reilly Algorithm (BOA), especially around stations St17 and St19. The potential coastal sources of contaminants were tested using Lagrangian Origin Maps (LOM), suggesting that stations St1, St2, St4, St11, and St15 were most likely influenced by coastal waters. Additionally, an atmospheric reanalysis combined with a Lagrangian dispersal model allowed for estimating wet deposition events of contaminants while tracking the fate of water masses where rainfall took place. Finally, we provide a set of explanatory quantitative and qualitative variables for future statistical analyses that aim at explaining the distribution of both chemical and biological samples collected during the cruise.

Coastal streams and sewage outfalls: Hot spots of mercury discharge, pollution and cycling in nearshore environments

The coastal streams (CSs) and sewage outfalls (SOs) are widely distributed and direct anthropogenic stress on global coastal ecosystems. However, the CS/SO-associated mercury (Hg) discharge, pollution and cycle in nearshore environment are less quantified. Here, we report that total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MMHg) concentrations in waters of CSs (n = 8) and SOs (n = 15) of the northern China were ∼102 to 103 times of coastal surface waters and 10 to 102 times of major rivers in China and other regions. The CS/SO discharges resulted in the increase of total organic carbon (TOC) contents, THg and MMHg concentrations and TOC-normalized THg and MMHg concentrations in sediments of CS/SO-impacted coasts. The laboratory experiments further illustrated that the CS/SO-impacted sediments characterized with high potentials of dissolved THg and MMHg productions and releases. Our findings indicate that the layout optimization of SOs is able to reduce the Hg risk in coastal environment.

Interaction of Naturally Occurring Phytoplankton with the Biogeochemical Cycling of Mercury in Aquatic Environments and Its Effects on Global Hg Pollution and Public Health

The biogeochemical cycling of mercury in aquatic environments is a complex process driven by various factors, such as ambient temperature, seasonal variations, methylating bacteria activity, dissolved oxygen levels, and Hg interaction with dissolved organic matter (DOM). As a consequence, part of the Hg contamination from anthropogenic activity that was buried in sediments is reinserted into water columns mainly in highly toxic organic Hg forms (methylmercury, dimethylmercury, etc.). This is especially prominent in the coastal shallow waters of industrial regions worldwide. The main entrance point of these highly toxic Hg forms in the aquatic food web is the naturally occurring phytoplankton. Hg availability, intake, effect on population size, cell toxicity, eventual biotransformation, and intracellular stability in phytoplankton are of the greatest importance for human health, having in mind that such Hg incorporated inside the phytoplankton cells due to biomagnification effects eventually ends up in aquatic wildlife, fish, seafood, and in the human diet. This review summarizes recent findings on the topic of organic Hg form interaction with natural phytoplankton and offers new insight into the matter with possible directions of future research for the prevention of Hg biomagnification in the scope of climate change and global pollution increase scenarios.

Origin and partitioning of mercury in the polluted Scheldt Estuary and adjacent coastal zone

Estuaries and coastal zones are areas with complex biogeochemical and hydrological cycles and are generally facing intense pollution due to anthropogenic activities. An emblematic example is the Scheldt Estuary which ends up in the North Sea and has been historically heavily contaminated by multiple pollutants, including mercury (Hg). We report here Hg species and their levels in surface waters of the Scheldt Estuary and the Belgian Part of North Sea (BPNS) from different sampling campaigns in February-April 2020 and 2021. Along the estuary, Hg concentration on suspended particles ([Hg_SPM]) progressively decreased with increasing salinity and was strongly correlated with organic matter content (%C_org) and origin (identified with δ¹³C_org). While [Hg_SPM] drives total Hg concentration in the estuary (total dissolved Hg, Hg_TD is only 7 ± 6 %), annual and daily variations of total Hg levels were mostly attributed to changes in SPM loads depending on river discharge and tidal regime. In the BPNS, a significant fraction of total Hg occurs as Hg_TD (40 ± 21 %) and the majority of this Hg_TD was reducible (i.e. labile Hg), meaning potentially available for microorganisms. Compared to the '90s, a significant decrease of [Hg_SPM] was observed in the estuary, but this was not the case for [Hg_TD], which can be due to (1) still significant discrete discharges from Antwerp industrial area, and (2) higher Hg partitioning towards the dissolved phase in the water column relative to the '90s. Our results highlight the important contribution of the Scheldt estuary for the Hg budget in North Sea coastal waters, as well as the need for seasonal monitoring of all Hg species.