Biomagnification of persistent organic contaminants in Great Slave Lake food webs
- National Hydrology Research Inst., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada)
- Freshwater Inst., Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)
Great Slave Lake is a large, subarctic lake which receives the majority of its water from the Slave, Peace, and Athabasca Rivers watershed. Increased development in the southern region of the watershed may provide a significant source of organic contaminants to the lake in addition to contaminants entering the lake via direct atmospheric deposition. Here the authors report the results of a study comparing organic contaminant concentrations in lake trout, burbot, and whitefish collected near the Slave River outflow and in a region of Great Slave Lake which is believed to be minimally affected by the Slave River. They also use stable isotope analyses to infer spatial differences in fish feeding habits between the two regions of the lake and to investigate how food habits may affect organic contaminant biomagnification. Finally, the authors compare their Great Slave Lake data with studies conducted from other regions of the Arctic and subarctic. This allows them to infer how the Slave River inflow may affect organic contaminant concentrations and biomagnification in the Great Slave Lake ecosystem.
- OSTI ID:
- 49520
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410273--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Evaluation of the fish biochemistry data from the Slave River monitoring program, NWT, 1988--1994
Body burden contaminants in whole fish tissue and livers from the Slave River (NWT)