METAALICUS: Mercury Experiment To Assess Atmospheric Loading In Canada and the United States
This brochure describes research that will directly answer for the first time what happens to fish mercury concentrations when there is a change in atmospheric mercury deposition. Despite the massive amounts of scientific information published on mercury contamination of ecosystems, there remain very basic questions about the environmental behavior and effects of this element. A critical uncertainty is whether a reduction in atmospheric mercury emissions will reduce mercury concentrations in fish. It is important to answer this question now because controls on industrial emissions of mercury have been proposed that will cost billions of dollars per year if implemented, yet the effectiveness of these controls is unknown.