Mercury in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea: A response to decreased atmospheric deposition and changing environment

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin Vol. 186; p. 114426
• Main Authors: Jędruch, Agnieszka, Falkowska, Lucyna, Saniewska, Dominika, Grajewska, Agnieszka, Bełdowska, Magdalena, Meissner, Włodzimierz, Kalisińska, Elżbieta, Duzinkiewicz, Kazimierz, Pacyna, Józef M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2023
• Subjects: Animals; Baltic Sea; Climate change; Environmental Monitoring; Fishes; Humans; Mercury - analysis; Minamata convention; Poland; Risk assessment; Temporal trends; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Poland; Temporal trends; Climate change; Minamata convention; Risk assessment; Baltic Sea; Hg
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114426

Our review of the literature showed that since the beginning of the socio-economic transformation in Poland in the 1990s, the downward trend in Hg emissions and its deposition in the southern Baltic Sea was followed by a simultaneous decrease in Hg levels in water and marine plants and animals. Hg concentrations in the biota lowered to values that pose no or low risk to wildlife and seafood consumers. However, in the first decade of the current century, a divergence between these two trends became apparent and Hg concentrations in fish, herring and cod, began to rise. Therefore, increasing emission-independent anthropogenic pressures, which affect Hg uptake and trophodynamics, remobilization of land-based and marine legacy Hg deposits, as well as the structure of the food web, can undermine the chances of reducing both the Hg pool in the marine environment and human Hg exposure from fish.
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•Hg levels in water and wildlife of the southern Baltic have decreased since the 1990s.•The environmental response to changes in Hg emission was evident and not postponed.•The current level of Hg in the sea poses a low risk to wildlife and human health.•Hg pool may increase due to climate change-related remobilization of legacy deposits.•The future Hg level will be shaped by emission-independent environmental factors.