Methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations can increase by 100 000 times between seawater and marine phytoplankton, but levels vary across sites. To better understand how ecosystem properties affect variability in planktonic MeHg concentrations, we develop a model for MeHg uptake and trophic transfer at the base of marine food webs. The model successfully reproduces measured concentrations in phytoplankton and zooplankton across diverse sites from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Highest MeHg concentrations in phytoplankton are simulated under low dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and ultraoligotrophic conditions typical of open ocean regions. This occurs because large organic complexes bound to MeHg inhibit cellular uptake and cell surface area to volume ratios are greatest under low productivity conditions. Modeled bioaccumulation factors for phytoplankton (10-10) are more variable than those for zooplankton (10-10) across ranges in DOC (40-500 μM) and productivities (ultraoligotrophic to hypereutrophic) typically found in marine ecosystems. Zooplankton growth dilutes their MeHg body burden, but they also consume greater quantities of MeHg enriched prey at larger sizes. These competing processes lead to lower variability in MeHg concentrations in zooplankton compared to phytoplankton. Even under hypereutrophic conditions, modeled growth dilution in marine zooplankton is insufficient to lower their MeHg concentrations, contrasting findings from freshwater ecosystems.

The spatial variation of MeHg production, bioaccumulation and biomagnification in marine food webs is poorly characterized but critical to understanding the links between sources and higher trophic levels such as fish that are ultimately vectors of human and wildlife exposure. This paper discusses both large and local scale processes controlling Hg supply, methylation, bioaccumulation and transfer in marine ecosystems. While global estimates of Hg supply suggest important open ocean reservoirs of MeHg, only coastal processes and food webs are known sources of MeHg production, bioaccumulation, and bioadvection. The patterns observed to date suggest that not all sources and biotic receptors are spatially linked and that physical and ecological processes are important in transferring MeHg from source regions to bioaccumulation in marine food webs and from lower to higher trophic levels.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated camphenes (PCCs) and isomers of DDT and DDE were the predominant organochlorine (OC) hydrocarbons measured in epontic particulate matter, zooplankton, pelagic and benthic amphipods and liver tissue from an abyssal fish collected in the Arctic Ocean. Chlordane, dieldrin and other cyclodienes and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers were present at lower concentrations. Levels on a dry weight basis in plankton of various sizes less than 63 microns to 2 mm were similar to those in epontic particulate matter, but on a lipid weight basis, concentrations in smaller plankton were two to five times higher. Organochlorines in amphipods and liver from the glacial eelpout Lycodes frigidus exceeded levels in zooplankton by up to an order of magnitude. Large benthic lysianassid amphipods (Tmetonyx cicada, Anonyx nugax and Eurythenes gryllus) accumulated higher concentrations on a dry and lipid weight basis than small species (Onisimus spp. and Andaniexis spp.) or the under-ice gammaridean amphipod (Gammarus wilkitzkii). No significant differences in OC levels were measured in benthic amphipods collected at different times. However, concentrations in large zooplankton (greater than 500 microns) collected in August, dominated by adult copepods and ctenophores, contained concentrations of alpha-HCH, chlordane isomers and other cyclodienes that were two to four times higher than levels in May. Ratios of alpha-HCH: gamma-HCH (5 to 10) were similar to those in seawater collected simultaneously but there was no difference in ratios in various size categories of planktonic and benthic crustaceans indicating no selective accumulation or metabolic alteration of these isomers. Ratios of cis-chlordane:trans-chlordane concentrations were lower in all sizes of zooplankton (2 to 3) than in shelf amphipods (3 to 6) which corresponded to an increase in the ratio with depth. Higher ratios of DDT:DDE in plankton (2 to 6) than in amphipods (1 to 2) reflects the metabolism of DDT to the more stable DDE isomers in amphipods. Metabolites of trans-chlordane were also measured in plankton and benthic amphipods. Although some OCs are degraded or metabolically transformed, accumulation in lipid-rich tissues results in the highest total concentrations in long-lived large-bodied arctic marine organisms.