Investigating the environmental conditions that drive mercury methylation in freshwater systems
2024 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Methylmercury (MeHg) is a hazardous neurotoxin that bioaccumulates throughout the food web, which is converted from inorganic mercury (Hg) by microorganisms in oxygen-deprived (hypoxic, or anoxic) conditions. Climate change challenges the ability to limit Hg methylation in the environment since increasing temperatures are predicted to increase the prevalence of hypoxic and anoxic conditions in water columns. My Master thesis project aimed to investigate the diversity, abundance, composition, and structure of Hg-methylating communities to tie together the influence of environmental conditions. To do so, I used bioinformatic tools to analyze a dataset containing freshwater environmental DNA sequences from a broad diversity of metagenomes. The dataset was collected in tandem with environmental metadata (e.g., oxygen) which was used to compare the abundance of one of the two Hg-methylating genes; hgcA. I found that the majority of hgcA genes came from metagenomes collected in hypoxic and anoxic water layers. Interestingly, certain metagenomes in hypoxic and anoxic water layers did not contain any hgcA genes and thus potentially no Hg methylators. Some hgcA genes were found in metagenomes from oxic water layers, which could be explained by settling particles originating from the sediment-water interface acting as oxygen deprived niches. These findings are crucial as they imply that the anticipated changes in freshwater oxygenation, resulting from climate change, will lead to increased niches for Hg-methylating microorganisms. Particularly, increasing algal blooms and persistent lake stratification leads to more deoxygenated water columns, which explains why MeHg can become an increasing hazard to animal and human well-being.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024.
Keywords [en]
Methylmercury, Metagenomics, Hypoxia/anoxia, Freshwater water, Climate change
National Category
Ecology Microbiology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-226190OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-226190DiVA, id: diva2:1869844
Educational program
Master's Programme in Ecology
Supervisors
Examiners
2024-06-242024-06-132024-06-24Bibliographically approved