Songbird Program
The songbird program focuses on using thrushes and other songbirds to determine the potential negative impact of pollutants on forested ecosystems. As a result of a comprehensive research effort between BioDiversity Research Institute and our research collaborators, we found that forest songbirds have elevated mercury levels.
Program Director
Melissa Duron
207.839.7600, ext. 102
Program Goals
- Develop and implement a new monitoring program, the Appalachian Mountain Mercury Network (AMMN), quantifying mercury inputs to sensitive high elevation habitats.
- Describe a previously undocumented terrestrial pathway linking atmospheric deposition of mercury with the bioaccumulation of converted methylmercury into the blood of insect eating birds.
- Integrate AMMN with nationwide mercury measurements in multiple ecosystems to monitor changes in levels over time.
- Network with other avian monitoring projects such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds in Forested Landscapes, Vermont Center for Ecostudies' Mountain BirdWatch, and Partners in Flight to determine the effects of elevated mercury and lowered calcium availability on productivity, presence and density of birds
Current BRI Projects
- Appalachian Mountain Mercury Network - a monitoring program that quantifies mercury loads in sensitive high elevation habitats
Geographic Focus
- Northeastern United States
- Mid-Atlantic
- Mexico
- Alaska
Recent Reports, Papers and Presentations
- Evers, D.C. 2008. Mercury in terrestrial birds of Belize. Report BRI 2008-05. BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, Maine. pdf
- D.C. Evers and M. Duron. 2006. Developing an exposure profile for mercury in breeding birds of New York and Pennsylvania, 2005. Report BRI 2006-11 submitted to the The Nature Conservancy. BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, ME. pdf
