Determining optimal sampling strategies for monitoring mercury and reproductive success in common loons in the Adirondac
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Determining optimal sampling strategies for monitoring mercury and reproductive success in common loons in the Adirondacks of New York Yang Yang 1 Ruth D. Yanai1 Nina Schoch2,3 Valerie L. Buxton2,4 Kara E. Gonzales5 David C. Evers6 Gregory G. Lampman7 ●
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Accepted: 4 October 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract The common loon (Gavia immer), a top predator in the freshwater food web, has been recognized as an important bioindicator of aquatic mercury (Hg) pollution. Because capturing loons can be difficult, statistical approaches are needed to evaluate the efficiency of Hg monitoring. Using data from 1998 to 2016 collected in New York’s Adirondack Park, we calculated the power to detect temporal changes in loon Hg concentrations and fledging success as a function of sampling intensity. There is a tradeoff between the number of lakes per year and the number of years needed to detect a particular rate of change. For example, a 5% year−1 change in Hg concentration could be detected with a sampling effort of either 15 lakes per year for 10 years, or 5 lakes per year for 15 years, given two loons sampled per lake per year. A 2% year−1 change in fledging success could be detected with a sampling effort of either 40 lakes per year for 15 years, or 30 lakes per year for 20 years. We found that more acidic lakes required greater sampling intensity than less acidic lakes for monitoring Hg concentrations but not for fledging success. Power analysis provides a means to optimize the sampling designs for monitoring loon Hg concentrations and reproductive success. This approach is applicable to other monitoring schemes where cost is an issue. Keywords Power analysis Sampling guidance Mercury Fledging success Bioindicator Common loon Lake acidity Adirondack Park ●
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Introduction Mercury (Hg), a neurotoxic pollutant, can be methylated and then bioaccumulated in aquatic food webs (Chan et al.
Supplementary information The online version of this article (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10646-019-02122-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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2003; Chen et al. 2008). The common loon (Gavia immer), a top predator in the freshwater food web, has been recognized as an important bioindicator of aquatic Hg pollution in North America (Evers et al. 1998). High Hg levels in loons can produce behavioral changes resulting in reduced reproductive success, especially at blood Hg levels over 3.0 mg kg−1 (Barr 1986; Burgess and Meyer 2008; Evers et al. 2008). To provide insight on the risk posed by environmental Hg loads and the efficacy
* Yang Yang [email protected]
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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
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Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
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California Department of Transportation, 111 Grand Ave, Caltrans, Oakland, CA 94612, USA
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Adirondack
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