In enclosure experiments in the littoral zone of Lake Constance, Germany, juvenile cyprinids showed significantly reduced somatic growth in the shallow eulittoral zone (0 5 m depth) compared to the sublittoral zone (1 6 m depth). Growth was especially reduced in larger and more deep-bodied fish groups, providing evidence that this is due to increased hydrodynamic stress, induced by ship and win...

Organochlorine and mercury (Hg) pollution has been one possible reason for a decline in the size of the population of the Saimaa ringed seal (Phoca hispida saimensis) in Lake Haukivesi, Finland. In this study, we analyzed changes in the concentrations of organochlorine compounds (OCls) and extractable organic halogen (EOX) in the blubber of Saimaa ringed seals that died from 1981 to 2000. In ad...

The determination of sulfur in biologically relevant samples such as metalloproteins is described. The analytical methodology used is based on robust on-line coupling between capillary electrophoresis (CE) and octopole reaction cell inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ORC-ICP-MS). Polyatomic ions that form in the plasma and interfere with the determination of S at mass 32 are minimise...

Mercury (Hg) is still a focus of environmental research, since its levels in fish frequently exceed the Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) of 20 μg/kg for biota defined by the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2008/105/EC). Current Hg levels in Abramis brama from German rivers are in the range of 73–346 μg/kg wet weight (2009) and exceed the EQS by a factor of 3.7–17.3. Therefore,...