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Intrusion of Mercury and Micro Plastics in the Aquatic Food Chain Its Effects on Fish Consumption Risks, Realities, and Policy Implications
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This review examines how mercury and microplastics contaminate aquatic food chains, focusing on biomagnification of mercury across trophic levels and the ingestion and tissue accumulation of microplastics by fish. It discusses food safety risks for human consumers and policy implications for managing co-occurring aquatic pollutants.
Abstract: Aquatic ecosystems are increasingly threatened by pollutants such as mercury and micro plastics, both of which disrupt food web dynamics. Mercury, a persistent and bio accumulative heavy metal, enters aquatic systems through industrial discharge and atmospheric deposition, accumulating in organisms and biomagnifying across trophic levels. Micro plastics, defined as plastic fragments smaller than 5 mm, are ingested by a wide range of aquatic organisms, impairing feeding, growth, and reproduction. Moreover, micro plastics act as vectors for toxic substances, including heavy metals like mercury, facilitating their transfer through the food chain. The combined presence of mercury and micro plastics poses synergistic risks, intensifying toxic effects and threatening biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human health via seafood consumption. This paper explores the pathways, interactions, and consequences of mercury and micro plastics in aquatic food chains, highlighting the urgent need for integrated pollution management and policy interventions to safeguard aquatic resources and food security.
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This review analyzed 92 studies to examine how mercury and microplastics interact when they co-occur in aquatic food webs. Researchers found a strong correlation between mercury levels in water and fish tissues, with some species accumulating extremely high mercury concentrations. The study highlights that the combined presence of these two contaminants may amplify ecological risks beyond what either pollutant poses alone.
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This review examines how methylmercury, a toxic form of mercury found in fish, interacts with environmental factors including microplastics in aquatic ecosystems. The findings show that microplastics can alter how mercury accumulates in aquatic organisms, potentially changing the level of mercury contamination in seafood that people eat.
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This review examined the trophic transfer and accumulation of microplastics through freshwater food chains, highlighting the risks to food security and human health as plastic particles biomagnify from lower to higher trophic levels.
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This review examined the global evidence for microplastic bioaccumulation in aquatic animals and the downstream risks to ecosystem health and food security. The authors highlight how ingestion of plastic-contaminated prey transfers microplastics up the food chain.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.