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Vermont Center for Ecostudies biologists followed mercury movement from tree needles and leaves through insects and spiders to salamanders and songbirds, then to top predators such as hawks and owls. Results show generally rising mercury concentrations up trophic levels, with notable persistence in leaf litter. Findings support strategies to reduce mercury’s harmful effects on wildlife.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/mercury-in-the-mountains-number-2-research-notes-vce-biologists-track-a-toxins-movement-through-the-food-web/316039/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/mercury-in-the-mountains-number-2-research-notes-vce-biologists-track-a-toxins-movement-through-the-food-web/316039.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Nguyễn Văn Học","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-09-20",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How do researchers explain mercury increasing across the food web?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Mercury can bioaccumulate within organisms over time and biomagnify as it moves to higher trophic levels. This produces higher concentrations in predators than in earlier food-web compartments.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which organisms showed the highest mercury levels in the study?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Top predators in the montane forest food web, especially Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Saw-whet Owl, showed the highest mercury levels in blood.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why were mercury levels relatively high in leaf litter?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Leaf litter can accumulate and persist mercury, and decomposition can leach mercury from fallen foliage. This allows leaf-litter mercury to remain substantial over time.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},316039,1790968397,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":14,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":24,"preview_page_count":4},1374402739827,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000c97e7351f1a627?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1787885694763230660","Research Notes  \nNumber 2  \nMercury in the Mountains  \nVCE Biologists Track a Toxin’s Movement through the Food Web  \nO  \nffering novel insights into mercury’s threat to wildlife, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) has for the first time revealed how this insidious toxin moves and concentrates across the food chain in forest ecosystems. In newly published research,  \nVCE biologists tracked mercury up the food web – from tree needles and leaves to insects and spiders to salamanders and songbirds, and in due course to top predators such as hawks and owls. VCE’s work, published in the journal Ecotoxicology1, is significant because it documents patterns of mercury’s migration through a forest ecosystem. The research could help inform the development of strategies to ease mercury’s dangerous effects on ecosystems and their wildlife inhabitants.  \nBackground: Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification  \nScientists have long recognized mercury as an environmental toxin threatening humans and wildlife. It impairs reproductive performance, growth and development, behavior, motor skills, and survivorship in aquatic birds and other wildlife. Mercury can also concentrate progressively over time in a given organism, presenting risks even if environmental levels of the toxin are low —a process known as bioaccumulation. Similarly, mercury levels can increase as the chemical moves up the food chain, going, for example, from flies to flycatcher. This amplification of a toxin at successive positions along the food web (each called a ―trophic level‖) is known as biomagnification.  \nFor many years freshwater ecosystems dominated the attention of scientists because water bodies offer conditions favorable to a particularly toxic form of mercury, methylmercury. But that view changed in 2005 when VCE, in pioneering research, documented that mercury can be transported in the atmosphere beyond fresh water and then converted to its methylated form in forested ecosystems. Suddenly, mercury was recognized as a threat to wildlife far beyond lakes and ponds. Yet relatively little was known about how the toxin actually behaved in these terrestrial ecosystems. VCE’s latest research offers some answers.  \nVCE biologists Chris Rimmer, Kent McFarland and Steve Faccio, working as mercury detectives on Vermont’s Stratton Mountain, tracked the toxin at discrete levels in the mountain’s food web: leaf litter, foliage, foliage-eating insects, omnivorous arthropods (insects and snails, for example), a terrestrial salamander (Red-backed Salamander), an insectivorous songbird (Bicknell’s Thrush) and two raptors (Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Saw-whet Owl). Their goal was to examine mercury concentrations and variability in organisms at different trophic levels during summer.  \nResults and Conclusions  \nVCE’s work documented generally rising mercury concentrations up the food web —from plants to plant-eaters to carnivores. As might be expected, Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Saw-whet Owl, at the top of the montane forest food web, showed the highest mercury levels in their blood. Although leaf litter might be considered the base of the food web, this zone showed relatively high levels of mercury as well, higher than any other biotic compartment except Sharp-shinned Hawk. One explanation for this is that mercury can accumulate and persist over time in the leaf litter, leaching out of the fallen foliage during decomposition.  \nPictured from top to bottom: Northern Saw-whet Owl (juvenile), Bicknell’s Thrush, Red-backed Salamander, geometrid caterpillar (© Ron Kelley), Balsam Fir. All other photos © Vermont Center for Ecostudies or Bryan Pfeiffer/Wings Photography.  \n1 Rimmer, C.C. , E. K. Miller, K. P. McFarland, R.J. Taylor, and S. D. Faccio. 2009. Mercury bioaccumulation and trophic transfer in the terrestrial food web of a montane forest. Ecotoxicology. DOI 10. 1007/s10646-009-0443-x.  \nTo read the full paper, visit [http://www.vtecostudies.org/PDF/Rimmeretal2009ecotox","cbCaiuVb1twQj4HW","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuVb1twQj4HW","pdf",1070387,"English","# Background: Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification\n# Study Approach and Target Species\n# Results and Conclusions\n# Evidence on Plants and Seasonal Patterns","[{\"question\":\"How do researchers explain mercury increasing across the food web?\",\"answer\":\"Mercury can bioaccumulate within organisms over time and biomagnify as it moves to higher trophic levels. This produces higher concentrations in predators than in earlier food-web compartments.\"},{\"question\":\"Which organisms showed the highest mercury levels in the study?\",\"answer\":\"Top predators in the montane forest food web, especially Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Saw-whet Owl, showed the highest mercury levels in blood.\"},{\"question\":\"Why were mercury levels relatively high in leaf litter?\",\"answer\":\"Leaf litter can accumulate and persist mercury, and decomposition can leach mercury from fallen foliage. This allows leaf-litter mercury to remain substantial over time.\"}]","Mercury in the Mountains - Number 2 - Research Notes - VCE Biologists Track a Toxin’s Movement through the Food Web | PDF",1789909359]