Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in the Upper Hudson River Basin--Fishing Brook

Background

Detailed investigations of mercury cycling and bioaccumulation have been done in the Upper Hudson River basin (upstream of the Hudson River near Newcomb, in New York's Adirondack Mountains, with a focus on the Fishing Brook sub-basin, part of the western headwaters of the Hudson River. This study is part of a National mercury study that includes a concurrent study of McTier Creek, a headwater sub-basin of the Edisto River, located in South Carolina's Coastal Plain.

These two study areas provide contrasting and complementary settings for the study of mercury cycling and bioaccumulation in headwater streams with close connectivity to out-of-channel wetlands. Atmospheric deposition is the dominant source of mercury in both of these mostly-forested watersheds.

The Upper Hudson Basin study is focused in Fishing Brook, a small headwater stream that drains about 25 square miles and contains about 89% forest, 8% wetlands, and 3% open water. The dominant biogeochemical processes and hydrologic connectivity of wetlands favor the conversion of inorganic mercury to bioavailable methylmercury. A wide variety of hydro-ecological classes of wetlands occur throughout the Fishing Brook watershed, including alder and evergreen dominated wetlands, deciduous shrub wetlands, emergent marshes, and some scattered open peatlands.

 

The Fishing Brook site is located upstream of the Huntington Wildlife Forest, a 6,000 ha field station in the central Adirondack Mountains. Samples collected within the Fishing Brook watershed are routinely processed at the Adirondack Ecological Center. Mercury cycling has been studied in detail in a nearby watershed as part of the Mercury Biocomplexity Study, a multi-university research effort. Additional links: USGS New York Water Science Center:Watersheds Research Section | Streamflow Hudson River at Newcomb, NY | Hudson Basin fact sheet | Hudson NAWQA Study