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Mercury and Methylmercury Concentrations and Litterfall Mass in Autumn Litterfall Samples Collected at Selected National Atmospheric Deposition Program Sites in 2016

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Mercury (Hg) is a persistent environmental contaminant and can accumulate and concentrate in food webs as methylmercury (MeHg), presenting a health risk to humans and wildlife. Multiyear monitoring and modeling studies have shown that atmospheric Hg in litterfall is an important form of Hg deposition to forests. Annual litterfall consists primarily of leaves with some amounts of needles, twigs, bark, flowers, seeds, fruits, and nuts. Atmospheric Hg accumulates in leaves and reaches an annual maximum concentration at autumn leaf drop. This data set is derived from ambient autumn litterfall samples collected at 23 selected National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) Litterfall Mercury Monitoring Initiative (LMMI) sites located near NADP Mercury Deposition Network sites in deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests in 11 states in the eastern United States during 2016. The NADP administered litterfall collection at the LMMI sites. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) distributed sets of passive litterfall sample collectors to LMMI site operators for systematic retrieval of samples during the 4 to 24 weeks of autumn leaf drop at each site. Samples were processed and analyzed at the USGS Mercury Research Laboratory where concentrations of Hg and MeHg and litterfall dry mass and sample moisture were determined. Hg concentrations were measured in 4 samples collected from each site and MeHg concentrations were measured in one composite sample per site. Litterfall mass and sample moisture were determined for 8 samples per site. Duplicate sets of these sample data were determined for 3 sites in 2016.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
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Identifier USGS:59f88860e4b063d5d309ef5c
Data Last Modified 20200827
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
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Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -93.468999999999,30.704,-72.868,47.5311
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ae684eb6d91a3c6d1e5ba0c1823cf5abfbf72f2dea1960c27186e635fef326e0
Source Schema Version 1.1
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