[mou] Fwd: Ornithologists in the (bad) news

[Jim Williams]

Forward by Jim Williams
Wayzata, Minnesota

Begin forwarded message:

Ellen Paul
Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Mailto:ellen.paul@verizon.net
Ornithological Council Website:  http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET
"Providing Scientific Information about Birds"

 From the New York Times, 25 July 2006.

July 25, 2006

Study of Songbirds Finds High Levels of Mercury

By ANTHONY DePALMA

A biologist studying wild songbirds in New York State  
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/ 
usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/newyork/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>  
has found that all 178 woodland birds he tested last year had unusually  
high levels of mercury in their blood and feathers, a sign that the  
toxic chemical has spread farther in the environment than previously  
thought.

The biologist, David C. Evers, who is also executive director of the  
Biodiversity Research Institute, a nonprofit ecological organization in  
Gorham, Me., said that his preliminary findings challenged existing  
perceptions about how far mercury travels, how it interacts with the  
environment and how it affects various forms of wildlife -- all with  
worrisome implications for people.

While mercury has often been found in lakes and streams and in fish,  
Dr. Evers's work documents the unexpected presence of the chemical in  
birds that do not live on water and never eat fish.

"Impacts on biological diversity usually show impacts on human health,"  
Dr. Evers said in a telephone interview. "If these birds are having  
trouble, that should be a very good indicator of a risk to our own  
well-being and health as well."

Catherine H. Bowes, Northeast mercury program manager for the National  
Wildlife Federation, called the results of the songbird study "eye  
opening" and said they helped expand understanding of mercury  
contamination.

"It makes a compelling case for reducing mercury pollution from local  
sources, as New York is doing," Ms. Bowes said.

In May, Gov. George E. Pataki  
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/ 
george_e_pataki/index.html?inline=nyt-per> proposed cutting mercury  
emissions from New York power plants in half by 2010, setting standards  
that would be substantially more stringent than new federal regulations  
on mercury. State environmental officials are drawing up regulations,  
and then will take public comments before adopting them.

The National Wildlife Federation will include Dr. Evers's study in a  
national report later this summer. The study will also be formally  
presented at an international conference on mercury pollution scheduled  
for Madison, Wis., next month.

The songbird study provides a broader assessment of the mercury hazard  
in wooded areas of New York and throughout the northeastern United  
States than has previously been conducted.

The presence of mercury in lakes and streams is already well  
documented, and the New York Department of Health advises people to  
restrict the consumption of any freshwater fish caught in most of the  
state to no more than one meal a week.

But Dr. Evers is one of the first scientists to test for wildlife  
mercury contamination beyond fish. He began his work in this area in  
1998 and found that common loons, which eat fish, had highly elevated  
levels of mercury that made them lethargic and caused their  
reproductive rates to drop.

He then decided to study songbirds, which never eat fish. In  
particular, he wanted to study the wood thrush, a small bird with a  
distinctive song that was once common throughout the Northeast. The  
population of wood thrushes has declined 45 percent in recent decades.

It was once thought that destruction of the bird's forest habitat was  
responsible for the decline. But Dr. Evers now suspects that mercury  
contamination might be a factor, along with the wide-ranging negative  
effects of acid rain on the forests.

Last year the Nature Conservancy  
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/ 
nature_conservancy/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, concerned about mercury  
contamination in the Adirondacks and Catskills and its effect on the  
ecosystem, commissioned Dr. Evers and the Biodiversity Institute to  
undertake a pilot study in New York State. He netted songbirds at nine  
sites, including areas near some of New York City's upstate reservoirs.

(Although the Department of Health fish advisory extends to the  
reservoirs, regular sampling by city officials has not detected any  
mercury in the water.)

Much of the mercury that is causing problems in New York comes from  
coal-burning power plants, including those in Ohio and other states in  
the Midwest. Smokestack emissions from those plants tend to drift  
eastward. The airborne mercury eventually falls to earth, settling in  
lakes and streams where it is transformed into methyl mercury, which is  
toxic.

The chemical then enters the food chain through worms and tiny  
creatures that live on lake bottoms. They are eaten by small fish,  
which then become prey for larger fish. The amount of mercury is  
magnified as it goes from smaller species to larger ones.

Dr. Evers's work suggests that when mercury falls on land, it is  
absorbed by soil and by fallen leaves that are consumed by worms and  
insects. Songbirds then feed on the bugs, absorbing the mercury.

While all the birds he tested last year had mercury in their blood,  
wood thrushes had the most, Dr. Evers said, an average of 0.1 parts per  
million. That is below the federal safe standard for fish (0.3 p.p.m.)  
but high enough to affect the birds' reproductive cycle.

With fewer songbirds to eat potentially harmful insects, the state's  
forests would be at greater risk for damage by gypsy moths and other  
pests, Dr. Evers said.

Beyond that, mercury leaching into soil could find its way into the  
food chain in ways that are still unknown, he said.

This summer, again with support from the Nature Conservancy and the  
Biodiversity Research Institute, Dr. Evers has expanded his sampling  
range to cover 33 sites in New York and across the Northeast.

"That starts to get us to the point where we can provide solid  
scientific findings to public policymakers who will have to decide what  
to do about mercury," he said.

The project has also taken blood samples this year from nesting bald  
eagles.

Tim Tear, senior scientist and manager of the Nature Conservancy's  
global conservation approach team, said that while last year's pilot  
study did not provide conclusive evidence, it "certainly gives us  
confidence that our early hypotheses" about the deposition of mercury  
on land are correct, warranting further study.