Recovery of aquatic insect‐mediated methylmercury flux from ponds following drying disturbance

Recovery of aquatic insect‐mediated methylmercury flux from ponds following drying disturbance

Small ponds exist across a permanence gradient, and pond permanence is hypothesized to be a primary determinant of insect community structure and insect‐mediated methylmercury (MeHg) flux from ponds to the surrounding terrestrial landscape. The present study describes the first experiment examining...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental toxicology and chemistry Vol. 36; no. 8; pp. 1986 - 1990
Main Authors: Chumchal, Matthew M., Drenner, Ray W., Greenhill, Frank M., Kennedy, James H., Courville, Ashlyn E., Gober, Charlie A.A., Lossau, Luke O.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-08-2017
Subjects:
Animals
Anisoptera
Aquatic ecosystems
Aquatic insects
Chaoboridae
Chironomidae - metabolism
Community structure
Contaminants
Dimethylmercury
Drying
Drying disturbance
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Fish
Fishes - metabolism
Floating structures
Fluctuations
Fluxes
Food Chain
Insecta - metabolism
Insects
Mercury (metal)
Methylmercury
Methylmercury Compounds - analysis
Methylmercury Compounds - metabolism
Methylmercury flux
Odonata
Ponds
Ponds - chemistry
Recovery
Seasons
Spring (season)
Summer
Terrestrial ecosystems
Traps
Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical - metabolism
Drying disturbance
Aquatic insects
Ponds
Recovery
Methylmercury flux
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Summary:Small ponds exist across a permanence gradient, and pond permanence is hypothesized to be a primary determinant of insect community structure and insect‐mediated methylmercury (MeHg) flux from ponds to the surrounding terrestrial landscape. The present study describes the first experiment examining the recovery of insect‐mediated MeHg flux following a drying disturbance that converted permanent ponds with insectivorous fish to semipermanent ponds without fish. Floating emergence traps were used to collect emergent insects for 10 wk in the spring and summer from 5 ponds with fish (permanent) and 5 ponds that were drained to remove fish, dried, and refilled with water (semipermanent). During the 73‐d period after semipermanent ponds were refilled, total MeHg flux from semipermanent ponds was not significantly different than total MeHg flux from permanent ponds, indicating that insect‐mediated MeHg flux had rapidly recovered in semipermanent ponds following the drying disturbance. Methylmercury fluxes from dragonflies (Odonata: Anisoptera) and phantom midges (Diptera: Chaoboridae) were significantly greater from newly refilled semipermanent ponds than permanent ponds, but the MeHg fluxes from the other 8 emergent insect taxa did not differ between treatments. The present study demonstrates the impact of drying disturbance and the effect of community structure on the cross‐system transport of contaminants from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:1986–1990. © 2017 SETAC
ISSN:0730-7268
1552-8618
DOI:10.1002/etc.3734