Introduction

1. Mercury Rising With Trophic Levels Anna Dieffenbach, McKenzie Dalton, Mike DiMauro, Stephanie HendrickWoodstock Union High School Conclusions The objective of our experiment was to see how mercury levels vary through the trophic pyramid levels. The hypothesis stated; if mercury levels are compared through the trophic pyramid, then the quaternary level would have the most mercury and the primary consumers would contain the least because of biomagnification going through the trophic pyramid levels. According to our graph, our results clearly show that our hypothesis was correct. For instance, we tested a snail which comes from the second lowest level, primary, and it had average mercury levels of 74.1 ppb. The raptor from the quaternary level had mercury levels of 700 ppb. This clearly shows that the higher levels of the trophic pyramid have more mercury than the lower levels. Therefore, our group came to the conclusion that the higher levels have more mercury due to biomagnification. As organisms eat each other, the mercury continues moving up and becoming more and higher ppblevels all the way to the top of the pyramiduntilthe quaternary level has the most mercury out of the trophic pyramid. However, we had a limited data set only coming from Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire so our data could be only true for these certain areas and not for other regions. The data was all taken from the same year and all except the raptor data was taken from Maine The Raptor data was collected from VINS. Since all of the data was from 2012, that makes the results more reliable. If they were from different years the amount of fossil fuels being burnt could have been different, and the mercury levels for the organisms that year would be thrown off because the if the burning amount varies, then the weather (rain and wind) would carry different amounts of mercury to the organism. In conclusion, the end results show that the quaternary level has the most mercury due to biomagnification through the trophic pyramid. Introduction Our group is researching how mercury travels through the trophic pyramid levels. Our goal is to conclude what level of the pyramid contains the most mercury. We are finding this information because it is important to know which trophic pyramid level contains the most mercury. This is so we know which organisms in the pyramid are the best to eat so people don’t get too much mercury. Being exposed to too much mercury could end up killing a person. To determine which trophic level an organism is in, you look at what the organisms eat. The plants go through photosynthesis, so they are at the bottom of the pyramid as the producers. Animals that only eat plants, or are herbivores, would go in the level above producers in the primary level. Animals that eat primary organisms go in the secondary level, and so on up to the quaternary level . Mercury could destroy an ecosystem by killing organisms that contain too much of the mercury. If an organism that plays a part in the food chain is killed off by the mercury, then other organisms will have less prey and might starve to death or die from too much mercury as well. This process of mercury growing through the trophic pyramid is called biomagnification. Biomagnification is the build up of mercury through the trophic pyramid’s organisms. Every organism contains mercury, and when it is eaten, the mercury is passed on to the next organism. Biomagnification is a problem for humans because we tend to eat organisms from a higher level in the trophic pyramid (unless we are vegetarians), which has more mercury. Results As we predicted, the mercury concentration increased with the trophic pyramid levels. The organisms we were able to test demonstrated this process well. Our information is limited due to not having all the information coming from the same site. Materials and methods We searched through a data packet that our teacher gave us to find the best pieces of data for our project. We chose to use data for primary consumers through quaternary consumers, but we did not collect data for producers. The organisms we chose were snails, dragonfly, crayfish, and raptors. Snail and dragonfly data were collected in Scarborough, ME on October 2nd, 2013. Crayfish data was collected in Old Town, ME on September 27th, 2012. All samples were collected by students using the Clean Hands, Dirty Hands technique. This research was taken from Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. The data that was taken from Maine was processed at the University of Maine and the data that was collected in New Hampshire and Vermont was processed at Dartmouth College.  Raptor data was different however, it came from VINS in 2011. Once we decided on the organisms, we graphed the data in order from primary consumers to quaternary consumers to see which of the organisms had higher mercury levels. Literature cited "What Is Mercury?" SCDHEC: EQC Administration. SC Mercury Reduction Initiative, 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. "Ecological Effects of Mercury." Www.state.nj.us. N.p., n.d. Web. "Biomagnification." Biomagnification. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. Mader, Sylvia, and G. W. Cox. "Bioaccumulation & Biomagnification." Bioaccumulation & Biomagnification. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. "How Does Mercury Affect Our Health?" Env-health.org/. N.p., n.d. Web. Su, Y., F. Han, S. Shiyab, and D. L. Monts. Phytoextraction and Accumulation of Mercury in Selected Plant Species Grown in Soil Contaminated with Different Mercury Compounds. Institute for Clean Energy Technology (ICET), n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. "Biomagnification - Definition of Biomagnification." Biomagnification - Definition of Biomagnification. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. Acknowledgments We would like to thank a couple of groups of people who helped us with our project even if they did not know they were helping. We would like to thank the people who processed the samples at Dartmouth College and the The University of Maine. The next people that we would like to thank are the people at the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation that let people take samples. The last person we would like to thank is Ms.Cramer who answered all of our questions and was tolerant even when we didn’t get things right away and asked her the same question multiple times.