Mercury in the Everglades

Water quality conditions in the Everglades are affected by mercury , the accumulation of mercury in aquatic ecosystems is of global concern due to health effects associated with eating fish with elevated Hg levels. Mercury contamination has been recognized as a critical health issue for humans and wildlife that consume fish from the Everglades. The state of Florida has advisories that restrict consumption of some species of fish Methylmercury is also produced naturally from inorganic mercury in the aquatic environment by bacteria in sediments under conditions devoid of dissolved oxygen. Once produced, is readily taken up but eliminated by fish . This results in a phenomenon referred to as bioaccumulation. The ratio of the methylmercury concentration in a fish to the concentration in the surrounding water is its bioaccumulation factor (BAF). Fish will bioaccumulate higher concentrations of methylmercury, this results in a phenomenon referred to as biomagnification