BioDiversity Research Institute

Visit the project’s funding organization:
the Great Lakes Air Deposition Program
(part of the Great Lakes Commission)

Supplementary information on
the Great Lakes Mercury Project:
New! List of Target Manuscripts
New! Project Collaborators
New! 2009 First Quarter Report
New! MercNet 2008 Workshop Report

Proposed Timeline for Project
2008 Project Progress Report
2008 Workshop Agenda
2008 Workshop Participants

Integrating Multimedia Measurements of Mercury in the Great Lakes Region

What's New

GLAD proposal for project expansion
Thanks to the enthusiasm of project participants to collaborate, share data, and develop manuscripts for publication, the Great Lakes Mercury Project continues to grow. We now have over 100 collaborators from 49 institutions. Due to the increased size of the project, leaders recently submitted a pre-proposal to the GLAD program for further funding for the Project. The pre-proposal was approved, and we're developing a full proposal to be submitted May 4th. Please contact Jim or Dave if you want to help with the proposal.

2009 First Quarter Progress Report
The first quarter 2009 progress report was submitted to the Great Lakes Commission on April 15th. Click here to see what's been going on!

Target manuscripts for special issues
Collaborators in this project will publish almost 40 papers in special issues of two peer-reviewed scientific journals, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Pollution. Click here for an updated list of target manuscripts!

Project impetus and goals

Mercury poses a significant threat to the health of humans and wildlife in the Great Lakes region. Existing data on mercury are dispersed among individual monitoring programs, research laboratories, governmental agencies, and other institutions.  The collaborative Project for Integrating Multimedia Measurements of Mercury in the Great Lakes, sponsored by the Great Lakes Atmospheric Deposition (GLAD) Program, is working to facilitate the accessibility of this data.  The project will compile a wide variety of mercury data for the Great Lakes region and analyze these data to address key questions about environmental mercury contamination and the exposure and effects on fish and wildlife.  This project leverages a significant commitment made in recent years with the Great Lakes region to a similar effort in northeastern North America, a neighboring region that extends from New York State to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. The Great Lakes effort will use datasets from project participants in statistical and modeling applications to examine patterns and relations in the data, and to enhance understanding of the factors affecting environmental mercury contamination, bioaccumulation, and biotic effects.

Project objectives include the following:

• Develop a network of scientists who study the distribution and controls of mercury in water, sediment, and biota in the Great Lakes region.
• Provide a forum for mercury scientists to communicate their results with other investigators in the Great Lakes region and to facilitate the exchange of information between environmental geochemists, biologists, and ecotoxicologists.
• Develop a common database of mercury concentrations in atmospheric deposition, water, sediment cores, and biota for the Great Lakes region that can be merged with existing databases from the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
• Develop a searchable Web site with existing mercury databases from the Great Lakes region.
• Identify key questions about mercury in the Great Lakes region and facilitate the compilation and analysis of existing data to address those questions.
• Identify a series of proposed manuscripts and applicable data sets pertinent to addressing key questions, which will provide the foundation for publication of a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal.

Geographic Focus

This project includes the province of Ontario, the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the bodies of water located entirely or partially within these geographic boundaries.

Project collaborators

The Great Lakes mercury project represents a binational effort that includes representatives from 39 state, federal, nonprofit, independent, and academic institutions.  see list of project collaborators

Project Contacts