Tracing the Sources and Depositional History of Mercury to National Parks

The National Park Service is seeking to reconstruct mercury deposition chronologies at two National Park Sites along the eastern U.S. coast. The goals of this program are to establish indicators of ecosystem response to previous air quality legislation and emission sources, and to evaluate histories of mercury sources to these coastal Park sites using isotopic mercury fingerprints. The program will be accomplished by fulfilling two objectives: establishing mercury accumulation records in lake sediments at Cape Cod National Seashore and Acadia National Park, and evaluating these records relative to other metrics of mercury accumulation in the parks. • Reconstruct mercury deposition chronologies at two National Park Sites • Establish indicators of ecosystem response to previous air quality legislation and emission sources • Evaluate histories of mercury sources to these coastal Park sites using isotopic mercury fingerprints • Leverage available datasets to assess system sensitivity to future emissions trends