Management, sustainability plans could decrease human, wildlife exposure.
Management, sustainability plans could decrease human, wildlife exposure.
Sulfur applied to sugarcane crops in South Florida is flowing into wetlands upgradient of Everglades National Park, triggering a chemical reaction that converts mercury into toxic methylmercury, which accumulates in fish, new research from University of California, Davis finds.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers collected water and mosquito fish across wetlands fed by agricultural canals. They documented how sulfur runoff can dramatically increase methylmercury concentrations in fish — sometimes up to 10 million times greater than the waters in which they lived, posing a risk to human health and wildlife. Growers apply sulfur to alkaline soils in South Florida to manage pH levels and increase the availability of nutrients to sugarcane.
“Methylmercury is a neurotoxin, and it’s particularly problematic because it can get across the blood brain barrier, so it gets into our central nervous system, and it can also cross the placental barrier,” said lead author Brett Poulin, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology. “It could have effects on cognition, on development, and it’s preventable to some degree because we know what changes we can make to decrease mercury levels in fish in managed wetlands.”
Read more at University of California - Davis
Image: Sulfur from sugarcane crops is contaminating wetlands like this in the Florida Everglades, finds a UC Davis study. (Credit: Brett Poulin/UC Davis)
