Elemental concentrations in fish from lakes in Northwest England

Elemental concentrations in fish from lakes in Northwest England

 

AbstractData comprise concentrations of elements in ashed fish sampled from lakes in the English Lake District in 2012 and 2013. Fish were collected from three lakes (Windermere, Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water) by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) Lake Ecosystems group. Fish species collected were Roach (Rutilus rutilus), Perch (Perca fluviatilis), Ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua), Trout (Salmo trutta), Pike (Esox Lucius) and Vendace (Coregonus vandesius). All samples were ashed prior to analysis by ICPMS or ICPOES to determine elemental concentrations
STAR partnerNERC-CEH
Type of dataExperimental
Sample number120 fish (7 Brown trout; 40 Perch; 6 Pike; 39 Roach; 20 Ruffle; 8 Vendace)
QualityFish were collected in 2012 and 2013 from Windermere, Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water in the English Lake District. Species collected were: Roach (Rutilus rutilus), Perch (Perca. fluviatilis), Ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua), Trout (Salmo trutta), Pike (Esox Lucius) and Vendace (Coregonus vandesius). Samples were frozen (-20oC) as soon as possible after collection. Fish samples were thoroughly defrosted, weighed and gutted prior to the whole-fish being ashed at 500 degrees Centigrade (°C). The ash was then weighed. Ashed fish samples were digested using an aqua regia reagent (i.e. a fresh 3:1 mixture of concentrated HNO3 and HCl, ‘aristar’ grade) at 175°C for 12 minutes using a microwave oven (CEM, MarsXpress). Analysis of the ashed fish digests was then conducted by ICPMS (Perkin Elmer, NeXION 300D) or ICPOES (Perkin Elmer, 7300 DV). ICPMS measurements were made using two types of instrument operation, either quantitative or semi-quantitative (using Perkin Elmer Total Quant software). The quantitative measurements were made using external calibration after spiking the digests with 10 µg l-1 Ga, In and Re as internal standards to compensate for instrumental drift and matrix effects. The semi-quantitative measurements were made using the ICPMS instrument operating in kinetic energy discrimination (KED) mode with the addition of helium gas. The semi-quantitative and quantitative modes differed as the former used an element concentration to intensity response curve to extrapolate concentrations over a wide mass range. ICPMS and ICPOES instrument limits of detection (LOD) were calculated using mean and standard deviation measurements for the digestion reagent blank. Method LODs were then calculated taking into account the dilution arising from the digestion procedure. Note that for some elements determined using the semi-quantitative ICPMS method it was not possible to determine instrument LODs from the analysis of a digestion reagent blank and in these cases the instrument LODs were estimated from an assessment of instrument sensitivity and assigned a values of 0.001 µg l-1 (equivalent to a mean method LOD of 0.001 mg kg-1). Results are reported as milligrams per kilogram (mg kg-1) fresh weight (converted from ash weight using the fresh to ash weight ratio for each sample).
Spatially referencedBy lake name only
Ecosystem typeFreshwater
Sample typebiota
Daten/a
LanguagesEnglish
StatusFreely available to download
Obtain data

Barnett, C.L., Wells, C., Thacker, S., Guyatt, H.J., Fletcher, J.M., Lawlor, A.J., Winfield, I.J., Beresford, N.A. (2015). Elemental concentrations in fish from lakes in Northwest England. NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre doi:10.5285/ed90df1b-462c-46bb-afbd-59794fb03f6b

Key reference sourcesAs above
Data ownershipNERC-CEH
Database formatcvs
Figure informationNA Beresford NERC-(CEH)
Keywords

infoex , freshwater , united_kingdom

 

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