Från: Bartshe Miller
Skickat: den 18 december 2010 00:33
Till: Steven Jorsater
Ämne: RE: Arsenic
Dr. Jorsater,
You have many good questions, and I will try and
answer them in a general way as I am neither a chemist, nor an expert in
arsenic.
We have always known that there were higher than
normal levels of arsenic in the lake, but it has never been a concern for
humans simply because the lake water is never used for drinking water.
The air quality issue has been a concern, as with
As for arsenic in the ecosystem, it is not
well-studied. Only last year did a graduate student begin research on the
chemistry of arsenic on alkali flies and brine shrimp. Somehow these
organisms have come to flourish in great mass despite unusually high arsenic
concentrations. Overall, the presence of arsenic is another one of the
ingredients that make
The chemistry of arsenic is highly complex, and not
all arsenic compounds are found in the same concentration throughout the lake’s water column and its sediments. Variability
exists and so does toxicity relative to people and other organisms.
We are in the process of writing additional material
concerning the chemistry of
Thanks for your interest,
Bartshé
Miller
Bartshé Miller, Education
Director
Mono
(760) 647-6595 | (760) 647-6386 x121
Hwy 395 at
www.monolake.org | www.monobasinreasearch.org
From: Steven
Jörsäter
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 1:10 AM
To: info@monolake.org
Subject: Arsenic
Hi!
Congratulation to the recent enormous world wide
interest in Mono Lake due to the discovery of the arsenic adapted bacteria. The
lake seems to have a fascinating natural history being important also to native
Americans. I have read some of the online material about this lake.
Surprisingly, the perhaps most important fact about the lake, is not mentioned
anywhere. According to the now famous paper by Wolfe-Simon and coworkers Mono Lake has “high dissolved arsenic
concentrations” of 200 micromolars. The high
abundance of arsenic is indeed the whole point of the paper.
But nowhere in your material I find any discussion how
wildlife including humans have been able to avoid widespread arsenic poisoning
while consuminging food derived from the lake.
Indeed, how has enrichment of arsenic in, say, birds of prey been avoided? Had
a Mono Lake like environment been created by humans it would have been
considered a lethal poison dump. I would be most interested to learn more about
this.
Please forward this message to the appropriate experts
if needed.
Thanks,
Dr. Steven Jorsater
Sweden
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