Mercury in Vernal Pools

June 2019 Update

Our first peer-reviewed paper from this project, published online in Ecotoxicology, investigated mercury levels in wood frog and spotted salamanders of all life stages (eggs, larvae, and adults):

Faccio, S.D., K.L. Buckman, J.D. Lloyd, A.N. Curtis, and V.F. Taylor. 2019. Bioaccumulation of methylmercury in wood frogs and spotted salamanders in Vermont vernal pools. DOI: 10.1007/s10646-019-02068-4.

Mercury Levels in Vernal Pool Food Webs

We have been investigating the role of land-use and landscape characteristics on the production and transfer of methylmercury in vernal pool foodwebs; from water, soil, and leaf litter, to invertebrates from several trophic levels, and amphibians of all life stages. Click on the poster at right (pdf 5mb) to view preliminary results of methylmercury concentrations in wood frog and spotted salamander eggs, larvae, and adults from six vernal pools in east-central Vermont. The poster was presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NEPARC).

Steve Faccio presented preliminary results from this project at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative in Dec. 2016.  View/download the powerpoint presentation.