Determining Exposure History of Northern Pike and Walleye to Tailings Effluence Using Trace Metal Uptake in Otoliths

Abstract

Determining the effects of mining activity on fish populations is complicated by the uncertainty of fish residency in an affected area. Otoliths are considered to be metabolically inert and can contain complete chemical records of environments in which individuals have lived. When coupled with the annular structure, otoliths provide temporal information to the history of exposure to pollutants. In this preliminary study, northern pike and walleye otoliths collected from two lakes adjacent to base metal mine tailings at Lynn Lake, Manitoba, Canada, were analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to determine background levels of trace metals. The presence of overlapping Zn, Cu, and Pb peaks above background levels in some otoliths is interpreted as a record of elevated levels in the environment. These otoliths provided a record of the history of fish movement into and out of the affected area.

Insights into population structure of Diplodus vulgaris along the SW Portuguese coast from otolith elemental signatures

“…1 g g −1 for otoliths (Campana, 1999;Thresher, 1999). The presence of zinc in otoliths has been suggested to provide information on fish habitat use in freshwaters (Halden et al, 2000) and anomalous high concentration in otoliths have been previously linked to water contamination by metal mining industries (Friedrich and Halden, 2010), but the uptake and incorporation into otoliths appears to be via dietary exposure (Ranaldi and Gagnon, 2008). In summary, otolith chemical signatures provided evidence of population structure among key fishery regions for D. vulgaris in southwest Portugal.…”

It’s elemental, my dear Watson: validating seasonal patterns in otolith chemical chronologies

“…Seasonality in fish growth seems to be reflected in some of these elements. In a range of species, otolith Zn correlates with visually-identified seasonal growth zones, with minimum Zn concentrations occurring within translucent winter zones with visibly reduced daily growth rings and check marks (Friedrich and Halden, 2010;Halden and Friedrich, 2008;Halden et al, 2000;Limburg and Elfman, 2010). Higher otolith Sr levels have been observed instead to occur in opaque zones in Atlantic Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) (Siskey et al, 2016), with inverse patterns in sodium (Na) and potassium (K) (Seyama et al, 1991) -while Tomás et al (2006) observed higher Sr and lower Na in translucent zones in European hake (Merluccius merluccius).…”

Mercury bioaccumulation in relation to changing physicochemical and ecological factors across a large and undisturbed boreal watershed

“…After data reduction, [Sr] (ppm) were plotted against distance from the otolith core (calculated as ablation time (sec) x ablation speed (µm/sec)) for each otolith using R Studio v. 3.3.1. Raw data were also smoothed in R Studio using a 10 point moving average (similar to smoothing done by Friedrich & Halden, 2010).…”