Geology Reports⌕ Search
Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70177945

A downstream voyage with mercury

Gary Heinz
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Retrospective essay for the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. As I look back on my paper, “Effects of Low Dietary Levels of Methyl Mercury on Mallard Reproduction,” published in 1974 in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, a thought sticks in my mind. I realize just how much my mercury research was not unlike a leaf in a stream, carried this way and that, sometimes stalled in an eddy, restarted, and carried downstream at a pace and path that was not completely under my control. I was hired in 1969 by the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center to study the effects of environmental pollutants on the behavior of wildlife. A colleague was conducting a study on the reproductive effects of methylmercury on mallards ( Anas platyrhynchos ), and he offered to give me some of the ducklings. I conducted a pilot study, testing how readily ducklings approached a tape-recorded maternal call. Sample sizes were small, but the results suggested that ducklings from mercury-treated parents behaved differently than controls. That’s how I got into mercury research—pretty much by chance.

Explore related subjects

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and ToxicologyArticle

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Gary Heinz. 2016-08-25. A downstream voyage with mercury. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-016-1909-1

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2020

Sensitivity of warm water fishes and rainbow trout to selected contaminants

Guidelines for developing water quality standards allow U.S. states to exclude toxicity data for the family Salmonidae (trout and salmon) when deriving guidelines for warm-water habitats. This practice reflects the belief that standards based on salmonid data may be overprotective of toxic effects on other fish taxa. In acute tests with six chemicals and eight fish species, the salmonid, Rainbow Trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ), was the most sensitive species tested with copper, zinc, and sulfate, but warm-water species were most sensitive to nickel, chloride, and ammonia. Overall, warm-water fishes, including sculpins (Cottidae) and sturgeons (Acipenseridae), were about as sensitive as salmonids in acute tests and in limited chronic testing with Lake Sturgeon ( Acipenser fulvescens ) and Mottled Sculpin ( Cottus bairdi ). In rankings of published acute values, invertebrate taxa were most sensitive for all six chemicals tested and there was no trend for greater sensitivity of salmonids compared to warm-water fish.

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxico↗
USGS2019

Lead exposure of red-shouldered hawks during the breeding season in the central Appalachians, USA

Lead is toxic to humans and wildlife. Most studies of lead exposure of raptors focus on the winter, non-breeding season when they scavenge heavily. We evaluated blood lead concentrations (BLCs) of red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) during the non-scavenging season in the eastern United States. BLCs of 53 of 70 hawks were above the limit of detection ( x¯ = 9.25 µg/dL ± 19.81; ± SD). Adult hawks had higher BLCs ( x¯ = 12.86 µg/dL ± 24.72) than did nestlings ( x¯ = 3.25 µg/dL ± 2.62; p ≤ 0.001, χ2 = 13.2). There was no difference in BLCs of adult hawks among physiographic provinces but there were differences between urban and non-urban settings (p = 0.04, χ2 = 4.2). Soils and invertebrate hawk prey also had quantifiable lead concentrations. Our work shows that red-shouldered hawks are exposed to lead when not scavenging, and suggests pathways by which these birds may be exposed.

Central Appalachians↗
USGS2019

Effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin on southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala) tadpole behavior

Neonicotinoid insecticides are highly water soluble with relatively long half-lives, which allows them to move into and persist in aquatic ecosystems. However, little is known of the impacts of neonicotinoids on non-target vertebrates, especially at sublethal concentrations. We evaluated the effects of the neonicotinoid clothianidin on the behavior of southern leopard frog tadpoles ( Rana sphenocephala ) after a 96-h exposure at 6 concentrations, including 0 (control), 0.375, 0.75, 1.5, 3.0, 6.0 µg/L. We quantified total displacement, mean velocity, maximum velocity, and time spent moving of tadpoles for 1 h post-exposure. Total displacement and mean velocity of tadpoles decreased with clothianidin exposure. Maximum velocity decreased linearly with concentration, but there was no relationship between time spent moving and clothianidin concentration. Our results suggest exposure to clothianidin at sublethal concentrations can affect movement behavior of non-target organisms such as tadpoles.

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxico↗