Trophic transfer efficiency of mercury to lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis from its prey

In the laboratory, net trophic transfer efficiency of mercury to lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis from its prey was estimated to be 63.5%. Assuming that gross trophic transfer efficiency of mercury to lake whitefish from its prey was equal to 80%, we estimated that the rate at which lake whitefish eliminated mercury was 0.000730 day-1. Our laboratory estimate of mercury elimination rate was 2.4 times lower than the value predicted by a published regression equation developed from previous studies on mercury elimination rates for fish. Thus, our results suggested that mercury elimination rates for fish have been overestimated in previous studies. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.