ArticleNature communications2020
Methylmercury produced in upper oceans accumulates in deep Mariana Trench fauna.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Extreme mass-independent fractionation of mercury isotopes driven by atmospheric plasma-induced chemical process.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Seasonal Variability in Marine Atmospheric Mercury Isotope Signatures and Environmental Drivers.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Clear niche partitioning of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria from the bottom and the slope of Mariana Trench.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Genomic potential for mercury biotransformation in marine sediments across marginal slope to hadal zone.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Warming-induced retreat of West Antarctic glaciers weakened carbon sequestration ability but increased mercury enrichment.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Near surface oxidation of elemental mercury leads to mercury exposure in the Arctic Ocean biota.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mercury isotope evidence for the importance of recycled fluids in collisional ore systems.Science advances · 2024Article
- Article
- Mercury isotopic evidence for the importance of particles as a source of mercury to marine organisms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Effects of Mercury Contamination on Microbial Diversity of Different Kinds of Soil.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Microbiomes in the Challenger Deep slope and bottom-axis sediments.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Demethylation-The Other Side of the Mercury Methylation Coin: A Critical Review.ACS environmental Au · 2022Review
- Distribution and Transformation of Mercury in Subtropical Wild-Caught Seafood from the Southern Taiwan Strait.Biological trace element research · 2022Article
- Substantial accumulation of mercury in the deepest parts of the ocean and implications for the environmental mercury cycle.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Geology, environment, and life in the deepest part of the world's oceans.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2021Review
- High mercury accumulation in deep-ocean hadal sediments.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Mercury isotopes identify near-surface marine mercury in deep-sea trench biota.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Monomethylmercury (MMHg) is a potent toxin that bioaccumulates and magnifies in marine food webs. Recent studies show abundant methylated Hg in deep oceans (>1000 m), yet its origin remains uncertain. Here we measured Hg isotope compositions in fauna and surface sediments from the Mariana Trench. The trench fauna at 7000-11000 m depth all have substantially positive mass-independent fractionation of odd Hg isotopes (odd-MIF), which can be generated only in the photic zone via MMHg photo-degradation. Given the identical odd-MIF in trench fauna and North Pacific upper ocean (<1000 m) biota MMHg, we suggest that the accumulated Hg in trench fauna originates exclusively from MMHg produced in upper oceans, which penetrates to depth by sorption to sinking particles. Our findings reveal little in-situ MMHg production in deep oceans and imply that anthropogenic Hg released at the Earth's surface is much more pervasive across deep oceans than was previously thought.
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