ABSTRACT
Mercury data for abiotic samples as well as living organisms representative of different ecosystems taken from a single collection locale, usually at the same time by the same research group, are particularly valuable. Such data may illustrate food web biomagnification and other phenomena more readily than isolated data bits drawn over several years from disparate locales using different collection methods, various sample preparations, and noncomparable chemical methodologies for mercury analysis. One integrated data set demonstrated that mercury from point-source discharges, such as sewer outfalls and chloralkali plants, was taken up by sediments, and the sediment mercury levels were then reflected by an increased mercury content of epibenthic fauna (Klein and Goldberg, 1970; Takeuchi, 1972; Dehlinger et al., 1973; Hoggins and Brooks, 1973; Klemmer et al., 1973; Parsons et al., 1973). In another case, analysis of the effluent from the Hyperion sewer outfall in Los Angeles showed a mercury concentration slightly below 0.001 mg/L (Klein and Goldberg, 1970). Concentrations of mercury in sediment samples near this outfall were as high as 0.82 mg/kg but decreased with increasing distance from the outfall; mercury levels in epibenthic fauna, including crabs, whelks, and scallops, were also highest at stations near the discharge and lowest at stations tens of kilometers distant.
