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Mercury Concentrations in the Fish Community from Indrawati River, Nepal

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Abstract

This study quantified concentrations of mercury (Hg) and its trophic transfer along the fish community in the Indrawati River, Nepal. Stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C), complemented by stomach contents data were used to assess the food web structure and trophic transfer of Hg in 54 fishes; 43 Shizothorax richardsonii and 11 Barilius spp. [B. bendelisis (1), B. vagra (3) and B. barila (7)]. Sixty-one muscle samples (including six replicates) were used for the analysis of total mercury (THg) and stable isotopes. Mean THg concentrations in B. spp. and the more common species S. richardsonii was observed to be 218.23 (ng/g, ww) and 90.82 (ng/g, ww), respectively. THg versus total length in both S. richardsonii and B. spp. showed a decreasing tendency with an increase in age. Regression of logTHg versus δ15N among the fish species showed a significant positive correlation only in S. richardsonii indicating biomagnification along the trophic level in this species.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41630754), Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03030504, 2009Y2AZ10), State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS-ZZ-2013-01-01) and Academy of Finland (Grant # 264307) are highly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Science, Kathmandu University, P.O. Box 6250, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Aastha Pandey & Chhatra Mani Sharma

  2. Laboratory of Green Chemistry, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Mikkeli, Finland

    Chhatra Mani Sharma & Mika Sillanpää

  3. Himalayan Environment Research Institute (HERI), Kathmandu, Nepal

    Chhatra Mani Sharma, Lekhendra Tripathee & Rukumesh Paudyal

  4. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Shichang Kang, Lekhendra Tripathee, Junming Guo, Xiaofei Li, Shiwei Sun & Rukumesh Paudyal

  5. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Shichang Kang & Qianggong Zhang

  6. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10085, China

    Qianggong Zhang

  7. Faculty of Applied Ecology and Agricultural Sciences, Hedmark University of Applied Sciences, Elverum, Norway

    Prakash Acharya

Authors
  1. Aastha Pandey
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  2. Chhatra Mani Sharma
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  3. Shichang Kang
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  4. Qianggong Zhang
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  5. Lekhendra Tripathee
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  6. Junming Guo
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  7. Xiaofei Li
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  8. Shiwei Sun
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  9. Rukumesh Paudyal
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  10. Prakash Acharya
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  11. Mika Sillanpää
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chhatra Mani Sharma.

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Pandey, A., Sharma, C.M., Kang, S. et al. Mercury Concentrations in the Fish Community from Indrawati River, Nepal. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 99, 500–505 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2161-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-017-2161-z

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