• Outreach & Education
• Scientific Research
• About BRI

• Research Centers
  • International Center for Loon Conservation and Research
  • Center for Mercury Studies
    • Mercury Connections
      • Great Lakes Region
      • Northeast Region
      • Western Region
    • Mercury in Forest Songbirds Project
      • Hidden Risk
    • Global Studies / Mercury Monitoring Networks
      • MercNet
      • GLMMR
      • TERRA Mercury Network
    • Policy Outreach
• Research Programs
  • Coastal Bird Program
  • Mammal Program
  • Marine Bird Program
  • Migratory Bird Program
  • Raptor Program
  • Tropical Program
  • Waterfowl Program
  • Wetlands Program
  • Wildlife & Renewable Energy Program
  • Wildlife Habitat Planning Program
  • Wildlife Health Assessment Program
• BRI Biostations
  • Arctic - Alaska
  • Temperate - Maine
  • Tropical - Belize
• Laboratory Capabilities

Acting Director: David C. Evers, Ph.D.
Ecological Analyst, Associate Wildlife Research Biologist: Madeline Turnquist
Assistant Wildlife Research Biologist: Alishia Zyer
Doctoral Graduate Student: Amy Sauer

Mercury pollution is widespread and knows no borders. Since BRI’s inception, the Institute has been a leader in research designed to understand the exposure and effects of mercury in ecosystems.

Mercury concentrations in fish and wildlife in the U.S. are known to routinely exceed human and wildlife health thresholds. At present, scientists must rely on limited information to understand and quantify the critical linkages among mercury emissions, deposition, environmental response, and potential wildlife and human health concerns. Mercury policy development, implementation, and associated monitoring rely on accurate and neutral science to improve certainty. The Center for Mercury Studies strives to meet those scientific requirements in the following ways:

Scientific Research

BRI continues to play a lead scientific role in understanding the exposure and effects of mercury on wildlife in New England, North America, and around the world.  Efforts include compilation of existing data, generation of new data in wildlife and their prey, and communicating those findings to policymakers and landscape managers.

• Mercury Connections: North American Regional Syntheses

  A regional mercury data synthesis across North America; initial efforts focused in the Northeast, continued to the Great Lakes region, and now begin out West.

• Hidden Risk: Mercury Exposure in Invertivores - Songbirds and Bats

  Studies show that mercury not only affects aquatic species, but moves out of the aquatic ecosystem into the terrestrial ecosystem through the movement of insects and spiders. BRI’s newly released report highlights our investigations of mercury contamination in songbirds and bats, animals that feed on terrestrial invertebrates.

• Mercury Exposure in Piscivores—Loons, Eagles, and Otters

  A report published in 2006 by the National Wildlife Federation provides a snapshot of mercury contamination in wildlife across the country and the range of impacts mercury can have on various species in different habitats.

• Global Mercury Biotic Data Synthesis

  Mercury is a global contaminant that affects a multitude of species across the globe; many studies have been conducted over a number of years on mercury in biota. By compiling and synthesizing the existing data, BRI is able to determine the impact of mercury on a global scale in relation to wildlife and human health.

  BRI is now collaborating with the Zero Mercury Working Group, of the Mercury Policy Project. The goal of the project will be to present information, where available, on most often consumed high mercury concentration seafood data, identify data gaps and raise awareness about global mercury pollution and those most greatly at risk for mercury exposure. The efforts of this project will aid in demonstrating the need for a comprehensive and standardized mercury monitoring effort on a global scale for identifying and testing highly consumed seafood with high concentrations of mercury.

• Mercury Lab Capabilities

Mercury Monitoring Networks

BRI has been actively working with an expansive group of scientists around the world to develop plans for an effective national mercury monitoring network, with interests to expand relevant templates on a global scale. To that end, the Institute has developed several networks that link research programs and provide an arena for shared methods and data. BRI is a clearinghouse for mercury data in North America and beyond; we currently coordinate the following research and monitoring networks:

• MercNet - Mercury Network tracking mercury in air, land, water, and biota.
• GLMMR - Global Loon Mercury Monitoring Research Network
• TERRA - Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Assessment Network

Policy Outreach

While BRI is focused on compiling and generating new scientific data, communicating technical information to decision makers and others is a critical component of our approach and philosophy.

• Scientific Reports

  As BRI works with various clients on projects to examine mercury in specific ecosystems, we generate reports detailing our work and findings. To obtain a specific report, or details on our work, please contact BRI directly.

• Government and Agency Briefings

  The Ecological Society of America, in partnership with the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI), the Great Lakes Commission and the Northeast-Midwest Institute, cosponsored a Congressional briefing entitled: “Mercury and Air Pollution Impacts on Ecosystems: Policy-Relevant Highlights from New Scientific Studies.” Click here for more information.

• Mercury Air Fate and Transport Research Partnership Group

  In partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), BRI is assisting in the process of developing a global mercury monitoring system, and is engaged in the deliberations for an internationally binding treaty for monitoring mercury as a global pollutant. Click here for BRI’s brochure: Mercury in the Global Environment.

• Global Fish and Community Mercury Monitoring Project

  In partnership with the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), BRI is helping to raise awareness about global mercury pollution and to identify biological mercury hotspots.

Resources and Publications

• Hidden Risk

  Studies show that mercury not only affects aquatic species, but moves out of the aquatic ecosystem into the terrestrial ecosystem through the movement of insects and spiders. BRI’s newly released report highlights our investigations of mercury contamination in songbirds and bats, animals that feed on terrestrial invertebrates.

   

• Mercury Connections

  Over the course of its history, BRI has continued to broaden the scope of its mercury studies by engaging scientists and land-use managers in collaborative investigations that aim to identify and understand the complex issues related to mercury pollution. BRI’s first major integrated mercury study focused on the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. In 2005, we published the inaugural Mercury Connections report—a distillation of 21 scientific papers highlighting the broad extent and serious effects of mercury across the landscape, the need to expand the view of the problem to forest ecosystems, the occurrence of biological hotspots in sensitive environments, and the demand for enhanced mercury monitoring.

  A second major collaborative study, centered in the Great Lakes region, has recently been completed; a summary report of the resulting 35 scientific papers is now available.

  In an effort to further consolidate regional mercury data for integration and interpretation into peer-reviewed manuscripts that can provide a platform for national-level decision making and monitoring, BRI has initiated a new study that will focus on the western regions of North America.

Scientific Journals

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  Ecotoxicology: A special issue on mercury in the Great Lakes Region
  Ecotoxicology: A special issue on mercury in northeastern North America

• Environmental Pollution

Reports to the Public

• NEW: Hidden Risk: Mercury Exposure in Invertivores
• Great Lakes Mercury Connections: The extent and effects of mercury pollution in the Great Lakes Region
• Mercury Connections: The extent and effects of mercury pollution in northeastern North America
• Mercury Matters: Linking mercury science with public policy in the northeastern U.S.
• Poisoning Wildlife: The reality of mercury pollution
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Publications

• Evers, D.C., Mason, R.P., Kamman, N.C., Chen, C.Y., Bogomolni, A.L., Taylor, D.L., Hammerschmidt, C.R., Jones, S.H., Burgess, N.M., Munney, K., Parsons, K.C. In press. An integrated mercury monitoring program for temperate estuarine and marine ecosystems on the North American Atlantic Coast. EcoHealth.
• Evers, D.C., Graham, R.T., Perkins, P., Michener, R., Divoll, T. In press. Mercury concentrations in the goliath grouper of Belize: Is this an anthropogenic stressor of concern? Endangered Species Research.
• Goodale, M.W. 2008. Preliminary findings of contaminant screening of Maine bird eggs: 2007 Field Season. BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, Maine. pdf
• Evers, D.C., Savoy, L.J., DeSorbo, C.R., Yates, D.E., Hanson, W., Taylor, K.M., Siegel, L.S., Cooley Jr, J.H., Bank, M.S., Major, A., Munney, K., Mower, B.F., Vogel, H.S., Schoch, N., Pokras, M., Goodale, M.W., Fair, J. 2008. Adverse effects from environmental mercury loads on breeding common loons. Ecotoxicology 17(2):69-81 pdf

Related Links

• National Wildlife Federation has posted information about Mercury Pollution on their Wildlife Conservation pages. Read why mercury is one of the most harmful pollutants faced by fish and wildlife.

Recent Media And Reports