Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 1601 Minnesota Drive, Brainerd, MN, 56401, USA.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, 520 Lafayette Road N, St. Paul, MN, 55155-4194, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Nov;370:122992. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122992. Epub 2024 Oct 25.
Mercury in fish is a serious human health concern. Mercury is a widespread contaminant that exceeds health effect thresholds in many fish species and waterbodies. The objectives were to determine the spatiotemporal variation of mercury in fish tissue for several fish species across thousands of lakes and to assess the potential use of fish length standardization and statistical models to improve fish consumption guidelines and impairments determinations in lake-rich areas. The results showed that fish length, species, ecoregion, lake size, latitude, color dissolved organic matter, water clarity, and zebra mussel presence influenced mercury concentrations. Fish mercury concentrations were generally higher from 1967 to 1990, and since 1990 there was no obvious trend. We found that a statistical model provided estimates of mean mercury concentrations by fish total length that were unbiased and with greater confidence than those based solely on sample statistics. The use of fish length standardization and inclusion of predictive models could improve precision and consistency of fish consumption guidelines and impairments determinations.
鱼类中的汞是一个严重的人类健康问题。汞是一种广泛存在的污染物，在许多鱼类物种和水体中的含量超过了健康影响阈值。本研究的目的是确定数千个湖泊中多种鱼类组织中汞的时空变化，并评估鱼类体长标准化和统计模型的潜在用途，以改进鱼类消费指南和富湖地区的损害判定。结果表明，鱼类体长、物种、生态区、湖泊大小、纬度、有色溶解有机物、水清澈度和斑马贻贝的存在会影响汞浓度。1967 年至 1990 年间，鱼类的汞浓度普遍较高，而自 1990 年以来，汞浓度没有明显的趋势。我们发现，统计模型提供的基于鱼类全长的平均汞浓度估计值比仅基于样本统计的估计值更准确、更有信心。鱼类体长标准化的使用和预测模型的纳入可以提高鱼类消费指南和损害判定的精度和一致性。
