Contrasting mercury contamination scenarios and site susceptibilities confound fish mercury burdens in Suriname, South America

Arioené Vreedzaam; Paul Ouboter; Ashna D. Hindori-Mohangoo; Ryan F. Lepak; Samantha L. Rumschlag; Sarah E. Janssen; Gwen Landburg; Arti Shankar; Wilco Zijlmans; Maureen Y. Lichtveld; Jeffrey K. Wickliffe

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122447

Contrasting mercury contamination scenarios and site susceptibilities confound fish mercury burdens in Suriname, South America

Environmental Pollution

By: Arioené Vreedzaam, Paul Ouboter, Ashna D. Hindori-Mohangoo, Ryan F. Lepak, Samantha L. Rumschlag, Sarah E. Janssen, Gwen Landburg, Arti Shankar, Wilco Zijlmans, Maureen Y. Lichtveld, and Jeffrey K. Wickliffe

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122447

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Abstract

In Suriname, mercury (Hg) use has recently increased because of gold mining, which has put fish-reliant communities (e.g., Indigenous and Tribal) at risk of enhanced Hg exposure through the riverine fish these communities consume. To quantify how the magnitude of these risks change according to location and time, we measured total mercury (HgT) in fish at sites downstream and upstream of an artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) operation in 2004–2005 and in 2017–2018. We tested whether fish HgT burdens over dynamic ranges were increased. Surprisingly, our findings did not support broadly increased fish Hg burden over time or that proximity to ASGM was diagnostic to fish HgT-burden. Subsequently, we elected to test the HgT stable isotope ratios on a set of freshly collected 2020 fish to determine whether differences in Hg source and delivery pathways might cofound results. We found that remote unmined sites were more susceptible to gaseous elemental Hg deposition pathways, leading to enhanced risk of contamination, whereas ASGM proximate sites were not. These results highlight that elemental mercury releases from ASGM practices may have significant impact on fish-reliant communities that are far removed from ASGM point source contamination.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Contrasting mercury contamination scenarios and site susceptibilities confound fish mercury burdens in Suriname, South America
Series title	Environmental Pollution
DOI	10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122447
Volume	336
Year Published	2023
Language	English
Publisher	Elsevier
Contributing office(s)	Upper Midwest Water Science Center
Description	122447, 8 p.
Country	Suriname
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page