Mercury pollution settles in hot spots.Mercury in the environment tends to accumulate in certain geographical areas, new research suggests. In a pair of related studies, David C. Evers of the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine, and his colleagues analyzed mercury concentrations in yellow perch and common loons in the northern United States The Northern United States is a large geographic region of the United States of America. Although the region includes a considerable portion of what is often called the American Midwest, most Americans refer to the region as simply "The North". and southern Canada. Those species provide indicators of ecosystems' overall exposure to the contaminant contaminant /con·tam·i·nant/ (kon-tam´in-int) something that causes contamination. contaminant something that causes contamination. , say the researchers. The team identified five "hot spots hot spots acute moist dermatitis. " where perch and loon loon, common name for migratory aquatic birds found in fresh- and saltwater in the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Its strange, laughing call carries for great distances. Like the grebes, loons float low in the water and their legs are placed far back. populations showed heavy mercury contamination. These are the Androscoggin and Kennebec rivers in Maine, the Merrimack River that runs through Massachusetts and New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). , the Adirondack Mountains in New York, and central Nova Scotia. Typically, mercury enters the atmosphere from coal-burning power plants. The researchers determined that an ecosystem's proximity to such sources had a greater effect on mercury pollution than past studies had indicated. Air currents, rainfall patterns, and topography also conspire to deliver mercury to the hot spots, Evers and his colleagues report in the January BioScience. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion