Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Mercury concentrations in American alligators in South Carolina, 2010-2017

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

This dataset comprises whole blood mercury concentrations, sex, predicted age, snout-vent length, and body mass index in American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) captured at Yawkey Wildlife Center, South Carolina, from 2010 to 2017. Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (Cooperative Agreement nos. G12AC20329, G15AC00264) and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (Grant nos. 2009094, 20100899). Alligators are an effective sentinel species for Hg biomonitoring because they frequently occupy the top position within wetland food webs, are long-lived, and appear to exhibit long-term site fidelity. This suite of traits makes them amenable to long-term longitudinal sampling that is reflective of Hg in the surrounding environment. We investigated total mercury (THg) patterns in whole blood of adult alligators from a population in South Carolina, USA. Our objectives were to investigate demographic, individual, and temporal variation in THg bioaccumulation patterns, including previously-unexplored non-linear effects. Using recently developed growth models and auxiliary predicted age at first capture information, we were able to differentiated between age and size-related variation in mercury bioaccumulation, which was previously confounded due to long-held assumptions of indeterminate growth patterns.

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.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5d9fcfe3e4b0366162951344
Data Last Modified 2020-08-17T00:00:00Z
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://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-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
Harvest Object Id d8a02cad-58a0-4eef-92c2-69205aa1d0fc
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -79.3213, 33.0984, -79.1386, 33.2835
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0b162bbffea8f1c0e62ef9b7e5643830d43cc109e41e01ef8d025b277fc993ab
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -79.3213, 33.0984, -79.3213, 33.2835, -79.1386, 33.2835, -79.1386, 33.0984, -79.3213, 33.0984}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.