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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1566875
Trophic transfer of mercury in marine food chains from the offshore waters of Changshan Archipelago
Provisionally accepted
Mingyu Huo 1
Min Pang 2
Xuli Ma 3 Penggong Wang 4 Chang Sun 2
Yulong Zhang 2 Yuchen Gong 2
Zhenwei Sun 2
Zhaohui Zhang 2
Zongling Wang 2
Pei Qu 2*
Xianxiang Luo 1*- 1 Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
- 2 First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- 3 China Certification & Inspection Group Shandong Co., LTD., Qingdao, China
- 4 China Certification & Inspection Group Shandong Testing Co., LTD, Qingdao, China
Mercury (Hg) and its organic forms can accumulate in marine organisms, undergoing biomagnification as they transfer through food chains. However, the factors affecting such Hg biomagnification are not fully understood. This study analyzed the biomagnification of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in marine food chains represented by invertebrates and fish from the offshore waters of Changshan Archipelago, grouped into continuous trophic level (TL) ranges based on nitrogen stable isotopic analysis. Concentrations of THg and MeHg ranged from 4.8 ng/g to 115.4 ng/g and1.8 ng/g to 47.3 ng/g in invertebrates, and from 3.7 ng/g to 102.1 ng/g and .0.5 ng/g to 67.6 ng/g in fish, with TL ranges for invertebrates and fish of 1.27–2.70 and 1.97–3.60, respectively. Hg concentration increased with increasing TLs in both fish and invertebrates. Combined with nitrogen stable isotopic analysis, trophic magnification factors (TMF) were 1.51 and 1.16 for THg and MeHg in fish, and1.94 and 1.71 for THg and MeHg in invertebrates, respectively, indicating the biomagnification of THg and MeHg in the study area. Further analysis of Hg biomagnification showed higher TMF values of Hg in both invertebrate and fish groups with higher δ13C values, suggesting that food sources influenced Hg biomagnification in marine organisms. Food sources with lower δ13C values might reduce biomagnification efficiency of both THg and MeHg within marine fauna. These results aided understanding of Hg biomagnification in marine food chains and provided a reference for developing ways to harness Hg pollution.
Keywords: hg, Stable isotopes, bioaccumulation, Biomagnification, Food sources, food web
Received: 25 Jan 2025; Accepted: 17 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huo, Pang, Ma, Wang, Sun, Zhang, Gong, Sun, Zhang, Wang, Qu and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Pei Qu, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
Xianxiang Luo, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong Province, China
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