Using Raccoons as an Indicator Species for Metal Accumulation across Trophic Levels: A Stable Isotope Approach

Gaines, Karen F.; Romanek, Christhopher S.; Boring, C. Shane; Lord, Christine G.; Gochfeld, Michael; Burger, Joanna

doi:10.2307/3803145

Cited by 44 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Tree Swallows are useful indicators of MeHg availability to insectivores (Longcore et al, in press), and mink are good representatives for Hg exposure to mammals on MDI because of their high trophic position and since sublethal sampling would be possible with this species. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) may also be useful (see Gaines et al, 2002) for similar reasons. Hg exposure should be determined in other potentially affected species, including long-lived reptiles such as snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentine, Golet & Haines, 2001), other aquatic birds such as the belted kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) and common merganser (Mergus merganser), and most biota found in wetlands.…”

Section: Considerations For Future Research and Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mercury Contamination of Biota from Acadia National Park, Maine: A Review

Bank

Burgess

Evers

et al. 2006

Environ Monit Assess

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We reviewed literature reporting both total and methylmercury from biota from Acadia National Park, Maine, USA. Our review of existing data indicates that 1) mercury contamination is widespread throughout the Park's various aquatic ecosystems; 2) mercury pollution likely represents a moderate to high risk to biota inhabiting the Park; and 3) biota at all trophic levels possess elevated concentrations of both total and methylmercury. Watershed fire history and the resulting post-fire forest succession patterns are an important landscape attribute governing mercury cycling at Acadia National Park. Therefore, park service personnel should consider these factors when planning and implementing Hg biomonitoring efforts. Additional baseline funding from the National Park Service for Hg research and biomonitoring will likely be required in order to further evaluate the spatial and temporal patterns of mercury contamination in the park's biota.

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Section: Considerations For Future Research and Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mercury Contamination of Biota from Acadia National Park, Maine: A Review

Bank

Burgess

Evers

et al. 2006

Environ Monit Assess

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“…The facility, which included five nuclear production reactors, has been intensely studied with regard to the bioaccumulation of radionuclides and metals in resident flora and fauna (Brisbin et al 1974a(Brisbin et al ,b, 1989Gaines et al 2000Gaines et al , 2002. The SRS produced plutonium and tritium and processed other nuclear materials for national defense and other industrial purposes.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

A Spatially Explicit Model of the Wild Hog for Ecological Risk Assessment Activities at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site

Gaines

Porter

Punshon

et al. 2005

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal

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In North America, wild hogs (Sus scrofa) are both sought after as prime game and despised due to their detrimental impacts to the environment from their digging and rooting behavior. They are also a potentially useful indicator species for environmental health for both ecological-and human-based risk assessments. An inductive approach was used to develop probabilistic resource selection models using logistic regression to quantify the likelihood of hogs being in any area of the Department of Energy's 805 km 2 Savannah River Site (SRS) in west-central South Carolina. These models were derived by using available SRS hog hunt data from 1993-2000 and a Geographic Information System database describing the habitat structure of the SRS. The model's significant parameters indicated that wild hogs preferred hardwoods and avoided pine and shrubby areas. Further, landscape metric analyses revealed that hogs preferred areas with large complex patch areas and low size variation. These resource selection models were then utilized to better estimate exposure of wild hogs to radionuclides and metals in a disturbed riparian ecosystem on the SRS using two different possible diets based on food availability. Contaminant exposure can be better estimated using these resource selection models than has been previously possible, because past practices did not consider home range and habitat utilization probability in heterogeneously contaminated habitats. Had these models not been used, risk calculations would assume that contaminated areas were utilized 100% of the time, thus overestimating exposure by a factor of up to 25.

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“…Groffman et al (2006) noted that thresholds should be used with some caution because analysis of thresholds is complicated by nonlinear and multiple interacting factors across scales of time and space. Examples of thresholds of parameter values used in management include ''trigger points'' and early warning signals touted in adaptive management (Dunn, 2002;Read and Andersen, 2000;Lindenmayer et al, 2000), and species or ecosystem ''sentinels'' used to foretell impending system degradation or collapse (NRC, 1994;Jassby, 1998;Gaines et al, 2002). In some ecosystems, increasing variability is itself an early-warning indicator (Carpenter and Brock, 2006).…”

Section: Parameters Estimators and Indicators (D)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity and the lexicon zoo

Marcot

2007

Forest Ecology and Management

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Using Raccoons as an Indicator Species for Metal Accumulation across Trophic Levels: A Stable Isotope Approach

Cited by 44 publications

References 39 publications

Mercury Contamination of Biota from Acadia National Park, Maine: A Review

Mercury Contamination of Biota from Acadia National Park, Maine: A Review

A Spatially Explicit Model of the Wild Hog for Ecological Risk Assessment Activities at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site

Biodiversity and the lexicon zoo

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