Tracing the Sources and Depositional History of Mercury to National Parks

The objective of this program is to reconstruct Hg deposition chronologies at two National Park Sites along the eastern U.S. coast, to establish indicators of ecosystem response to previous air quality legislation (e.g., Clean Air Act) and emission sources (e.g., local/regional power plant closures). These goals will be accomplished by fulfilling the following objectives: 1) establish Hg accumulation records in lake sediments at Cape Cod National Seashore (CACO) and Acadia National Park (ACAD); and 2) evaluate histories of Hg sources to these coastal Park sites using isotopic Hg fingerprints. We will also evaluate these records relative to other metrics of Hg accumulation in the parks, by leveraging available datasets, to assess system sensitivity to future emissions trends.