title: Mercury contamination in the Laurentian Great Lakes region: introduction and overview.
abstract: The Laurentian Great Lakes region of North America contains substantial aquatic resources and mercury-contaminated landscapes, fish, and wildlife. This special issue emanated from a bi-national synthesis of data from monitoring programs and case studies of mercury in the region, here defined as including the Great Lakes, the eight U.S. states bordering the Great Lakes, the province of Ontario, and Lake Champlain. We provide a retrospective overview of the regional mercury problem and summarize new findings from the synthesis papers and case studies that follow. Papers in this issue examine the chronology of mercury accumulation in lakes, the importance of wet and dry atmospheric deposition and evasion to regional mercury budgets, the influence of land-water linkages on mercury contamination of surface waters, the bioaccumulation of methylmercury in aquatic foods webs; and ecological and health risks associated with methylmercury in a regionally important prey fish.
authors: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, River Studies Center, 1725 State Street, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA. jwiener@uwlax.edu
authors: James G
authors: JG
authors: Wiener
authors: David C
authors: DC
authors: Evers
authors: David A
authors: DA
authors: Gay
authors: Heather A
authors: HA
authors: Morrison
authors: Kathryn A
authors: KA
authors: Williams
mesh_terms: D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D020387:Food Chain; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D006114:Great Lakes Region; D060106:Lakes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury