Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) announces the publication of the scientific paper Amazon forests capture high levels of atmospheric mercury pollution from artisanal gold mining in the January 28 issue of Nature Communications. In this new study, an international team of researchers show that illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon is causing exceptionally high levels of atmospheric mercury pollution in the nearby Los Amigos Biological Station.

A team of researchers, led by Jacqueline Gerson, Ph.D., from Duke University, documented substantial mercury accumulation in soils, biomass, and resident songbirds in some of the Amazon’s most protected and biodiverse areas.

“This is incredibly important research that has broad implications for monitoring mercury in tropical forest ecosystems around the world,” says BRI’s executive director David Evers, Ph.D., and co-author on the paper. “It also highlights the importance of birds as sentinels of mercury exposure in tropical food webs. A major part of BRI’s work with the Minamata Convention on Mercury focuses on monitoring biota globally; birds are a key component of that.”

Read BRI’s full press release here

Related Links

• Duke University’s press release
• Scientific paper in Nature Communications
• Feature in Scientific American