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  3. Assessment of Mercury Cycling in the St Louis River, MN using Mercury and Food Web (Carbon and Nitrogen) Stable Isotopes

Assessment of Mercury Cycling in the St Louis River, MN using Mercury and Food Web (Carbon and Nitrogen) Stable Isotopes

Dates

Publication Date
Time Period
2020

Citation

Janssen, S.E., Hoffman, J.C., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Walters, D., Eagles-Smith, C.A., and Mills, M.A., 2021, Assessment of Mercury Cycling in the St Louis River, MN using Mercury and Food Web (Carbon and Nitrogen) Stable Isotopes: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EOTIR3.

Summary

The St Louis River (SLR) is the second largest tributary to Lake Superior and a designated area of concern (AOC) due to past industrial contamination of organic chemicals and heavy metals, including mercury (Hg). Sediments, prey items (odonates, mixed benthic invertebrates, and spiders), and game fish were targeted within this study to determine if industrial sources of Hg were bioaccumulating into the food web. Samples from SLR were directly compared to a reference site in the Bad River, WI to assess if legacy contamination resulted in elevated Hg concentrations in comparisons to background regions with no known point sources. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes were also employed as food web tracers to determine if dietary shifts within [...]

Contacts

Point of Contact :
Sarah E Janssen
Originator :
Sarah E Janssen, Joel C Hoffman, David P Krabbenhoft, David Walters, Collin A Eagles-Smith, Marc A Mills
Metadata Contact :
Sarah E Janssen
Publisher :
U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :
U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
SDC Data Owner :
Upper Midwest Water Science Center
USGS Mission Area :
Ecosystems

Attached Files

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Assessment of Mercury Cycling in the St Louis River, MN using Mercury and Food Web (Carbon and Nitrogen) Stable Isotopes.xml
Original FGDC Metadata
View 		41.76 KB application/fgdc+xml
IMG_0968.JPG thumbnail 7.35 MB image/jpeg
Data Dictionary Mercury Cycling in St Louis River.csv 98.37 KB text/csv
Table1_Site_Location.csv 6.14 KB text/csv
Table2_Analysis_QAQC.csv 33.02 KB text/csv
Table3_Sediments.csv 25.12 KB text/csv
Table4_Waters.csv 2.05 KB text/csv
Table5_Prey_Items.csv 52.24 KB text/csv
Table6_Game_Fish.csv 25.57 KB text/csv
Table7_Dietary_Contributions_Bad_River.csv 1.29 KB text/csv
Table8_Dietary_Contributions_SLR.csv 6.25 KB text/csv

Purpose

Sediments and biological samples were collected to examine mercury (Hg) cycling within the St Louis River estuary in MN. This data set was prepared to assess the influence of legacy Hg contamination on contemporary fish Hg levels and inform current consumption advisory guidelines.
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  • USGS Data Release Products
  • Upper Midwest Water Science Center

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DOI https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/item/identifier doi:10.5066/P9EOTIR3

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