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Mercury Accumulation in Millipedes (Narceus spp.) Living Adjacent to a Southern Appalachian Mountain Stream (USA)

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Abstract

Millipedes are among the most important processors of leaf litter in temperate forests. Through consumption of leaf litter, millipedes may be exposed to mercury that accumulates in leaf tissues prior to senescence. To investigate mercury uptake in millipedes, Narceus spp. were collected from a remote site in the southern Appalachian Mountains, an area known to receive high mercury deposition. Additionally, aquatic primary consumers (larval caddisflies and stoneflies), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were collected from the same site for comparisons of mercury concentrations and percent methylmercury. Bioaccumulation factors for millipedes were 18.5 and 20.2 for total and methylmercury, respectively. At this site, the mean THg concentration in millipedes was ~ 10 × greater than both brook trout and rainbow trout and ~ 200 × greater than that of aquatic primary consumers. Millipede THg concentrations ranged from 222 to 1620 ng/g ww in an area where EPA fish consumption criteria (300 ng/g MeHg in fish tissue, ww) were not exceeded. The mean percent methylmercury in millipedes was 1.4%, suggesting these animals were accumulating large quantities of inorganic mercury.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency for their funding support and logistical aid in this project. We would like to thank the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation, the National Park Service, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for their cooperation and aid throughout the duration of this project. We thank Andrew Todd for his assistance in millipede collections and Jesse Harris for his aid in plant identification.

Funding

This study was funded by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency under the Tennessee’s Ecologically At-Risk Streams project (TEARS).

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Correspondence to Connor I. Olson.

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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Olson, C.I., Beaubien, G.B., Sims, J.L. et al. Mercury Accumulation in Millipedes (Narceus spp.) Living Adjacent to a Southern Appalachian Mountain Stream (USA). Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 103, 528–532 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-019-02664-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-019-02664-4

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