Methylmercury enters an aquatic food web through acidophilic microbial mats in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Eric S. Boyd; Susan King; Jeffery K. Tomberlin; D. Kirk Nordstrom; David P. Krabbenhoft, Tamar Barkay and Gill G. Geesey
Environmental Microbiology, 2009
Abstract
Microbial mats are a visible and abundant life form
inhabiting the extreme environments in Yellowstone
National Park (YNP), WY, USA. Little is known of their
role in food webs that exist in the Park’s geothermal
habitats. Eukaryotic green algae associated with a
phototrophic green/purple Zygogonium microbial mat
community that inhabits low-temperature regions of
acidic (pH ~ 3.0) thermal springs were found to serve
as a food source for stratiomyid (Diptera: Stratiomyidae)
larvae. Mercury in spring source water was
taken up and concentrated by the mat biomass.
Monomethylmercury compounds (MeHg+), while
undetectable or near the detection limit (0.025 ng l-1)
in the source water of the springs, was present at
concentrations of 4–7 ng g-1 dry weight of mat
biomass. Detection of MeHg+ in tracheal tissue of
larvae grazing the mat suggests that MeHg+ enters
this geothermal food web through the phototrophic
microbial mat community. The concentration of
MeHg+ was two to five times higher in larval tissue
than mat biomass indicating MeHg+ biomagnification occurred between primary producer and primary consumer
trophic levels. The Zygogonium mat community
and stratiomyid larvae may also play a role in the
transfer of MeHg+ to species in the food web whose
range extends beyond a particular geothermal feature
of YNP.
NOTE: the article text supplied here is for educational purposes only.
*Don't have Adobe Reader?
Get the latest version.
NOTE: Some versions of Adobe Reader have problems with Google Chrome. Either resize the browser to view the paper or enable
the Chrome internal PDF viewer by entering chrome://plugins in your address bar and clicking enable for the Chrome PDF Viewer plugin.