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Bio-accumulation of Mercury
Why is it in news?
- A research, published the journal “Nature” studied how climate change impacts mercury accumulation in fish.
- The research was jointly conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H), Harvard University, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a Canadian government agency.
More in news
- About The Research
(1) Focus of the research were the factors which alleviated or exacerbated the problem of increased mercury levels in fish.
(2) The researchers used three decades of data on ecosystem and mercury concentrations and developed a model for mercury bio-accumulation.
(3) The study was conducted in the Gulf of Maine, in the Atlantic Ocean.
- Major Findings
(a) Decrease in the levels of mercury pollution.
(b) Some types of fish have less mercury than before, and some, alarmingly more.
(c) This variations in mercury accumulation are due to
(a) Changes in sea temperature causing - changes in fish metabolism that gears towards survival rather than growth.
(b) Change indietary patterns of fish because of overfishing.
(c) Changes in the amounts of mercury found in seawater as a result of pollution.
Source
The Hindu