APES Tuna for Lunch A Case Study Examining Mercury Bioaccumulation and Biomagnifications Part 1 1.

. What is in some fish and shellfish that have caused the EPA and FDA to issue the restriction from pregnant women and for young children? - Mercury 2. Why is there a restriction for pregnant women and young children, but not the rest of the pollution? - Mercury is a toxin that strongly affect to human and children. Pregnant women and young children are much weaker than normal people, so the mercury effects can attack those 2 kinds of people quicker and stronger. 3. Do pregnant women have to avoid all fish? Explain your answer - No, because there are certain fish has less toxic than the others 4. Should Amanda have avoided the pan-seared tuna for lunch? - Yes, she should 5. Why is eating fish good for you? Do you want to avoid fish all together? Why or why not? - Because fish has a high level of protein. So, I dont want to avoid fish all together, only the big one because big sea creatures have high mercury level. Part 2 1. What human actions lead to increased Mercury levels in the environment? - Coal burning power plants 2. How does the Mercury end in fish? Draw a flow chart following the Mercury path

- Burning coal releases CO2, and mercury into the air then goes up to the atmosphere, next mercury falls down as rain (wet position or falls randomly from the sky (dry position) to ground, and ocean, lake, river. Finally phytoplankton absorbs mercury from water and zooplankton, then fish eats plankton, they will get all the mercury.

3. Where in the US are Mercury wet deposition levels highest? What do you think explains this pattern? - Florida, Southeastern Missouri.., because these states have a high amount of coal burning. 4. The EPA criterion for human health is 0.3ug/g. Which fish species have average concentrations that exceed the EPA limits? - The Spotted Bass and the Largemouth Bass

5. The concern level for piscivorous (fish-eating) mammals is 0.1 Hg ug/g. Which fish species have average mercury concentrations that exceed this limit? Why is the Mercury level for piscivorous mammals lower than the level for human health? - The mercury level in piscivorous mammals is lower than the level for human health because might not resist mercury in body as good as human. 6. Should you be concerned about mercury toxicity if you catch and eat a largemouth bass in a local lake? Why or why not? - Yes, because largemouth bass had a high level of mercury. 7: In which samples were mercury concentrations the highest (fish, streams, or sediment)? Why do you think this is? - Sediment because its both water and ground. Part 3 1. Draw a food web for Lake Washington using the species and food preferences given in Table 2. Label the species in your food chain as either high (>100 ug/kg), medium (20100 ug/kg), or low (below 20 ug/kg) mercury concentrations. Which types of animals have the highest levels of mercury? Which types of animals have the lowest? Why do you think this is? 3. Start with phytoplankton (algae) as the base of your web and then build up the food chain.

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Final Activity 1: Imagine you are Tara. Write a letter to your friend Amanda explaining what you have learned about mercury. Be sure to convey the aspects of your learning that will be most useful to Amanda. Dear Amanda, Mercury in fish affects to human negatively, but the main source of mercury in fish is human activity burning coal power plant. - Burning coal releases CO2, and mercury into the air then goes up to the atmosphere, next mercury falls down as rain (wet position or falls randomly from the sky (dry position) to ground, and ocean, lake, river. Finally phytoplankton absorbs mercury from water and zooplankton, then fish eats plankton, they will get all the mercury. The bigger the fish is the higher level of mercury they could get. 2. Find two other samples of compounds that biomagnified. Explain how each compound and/or toxin enters the biosphere and what impacts it has on living organisms in general and humans in particular. DDT - made for controlling mosquitoes and other insects. Cyanide - putting it in water