Abstract: Recent findings indicate that fishes from lakes in partially burned catchments contain greater mercury (Hg) concentrations than fishes from reference catchments. Increased methyl Hg (MeHg) concentrations in fishes can result in serious health problems for consumers. Here we show that a forest fire caused a 5-fold increase in whole-body Hg accumulation by rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) and smaller Hg increases in muscle of several fish species in a mountain lake. The enhanced Hg accumulation was caused primarily by increased nutrient conc...
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Topics: 
Ecology
Environmental chemistry
Fishery