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We’re Winning The Fight Against Mercury Pollution

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 24th, 2020
Photo of a river with a power plant in the background, white smokestacks billowing above it.

Chalk Point Generating Station on the Patuxent River, near Aquasco, Maryland. The gas billowing out of this power plant has already passed through some emissions-cleaning technology, thanks to healthier air regulations. (Credit: Cindy Gilmour/SERC)

by Kristen Minogue

Marylanders can celebrate at least one environmental win this year. Since 2005, toxic mercury pollution in the state’s rain has dropped over a third.

The preliminary figure comes from three state monitoring stations: Beltsville, Frostburg and a weather tower in Edgewater, at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). All three stations belong to the Mercury Deposition Network, a collection of roughly 100 sites tracking mercury across the U.S.

Maryland’s success partially stems from early regulations—most notably the 2006 Healthy Air Act. The act mandated reductions for some of the most dangerous pollutants in the atmosphere: nitrogen dioxides that create smog; the sulfur dioxide behind both smog and acid rain; and, of course, mercury.

“We’ve had a long time to see those changes happen,” said senior scientist Cindy Gilmour, who runs the mercury station at SERC. “Other U.S. states have not had those rules in place as long.” The federal government issued its first rule on mercury emissions in 2011, with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants.

View from the forest floor, looking up at silver open-air tower stretching above trees

SERC’s 120-foot meteorological tower has collected data on mercury levels in rain since 2007, one of three Maryland stations in the Mercury Deposition Network. (Credit: Kristen Minogue/SERC)

Gilmour launched SERC’s mercury monitoring program in 2007. At the time, SERC’s 120-foot meteorological tower was already collecting data on weather and other chemicals in rain.

“I thought it would be great to put mercury on top of that,” she said. She approached the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and suggested adding SERC as a third Mercury Deposition Network site in Maryland. “We said, guys, you’re just about to put mercury controls on power plants. This would be a great time to start looking at this.” The state has funded SERC’s mercury station ever since, as well SERC’s projects monitoring mercury and the neurotoxin methylmercury in streams.

For Gilmour, the falling mercury in rain marks a major milestone. But it’s only the beginning of a long journey. Slashing mercury concentrations in rain is one step; tracking it in streams and food webs is another. Her lab will continue watching mercury, to help ensure Maryland continues moving forward.

And while the improvements didn’t come cheap—Gilmour estimates pollution control systems cost roughly $1 billion for each large power plant—for taxpayers, more breathable air cost just a few extra cents per month.

“For a few cents on our electric bills over the last 10 years, we got this,” Gilmour said. “We also got reductions in asthma. We got increases in how clear our air is. The air’s less yellow and it’s more transparent.”

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Fred Tutman: Fighting for Justice and Inclusion on the Patuxent River

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 24th, 2020

by Kristen Minogue

After nearly three decades in television, Fred Tutman left filmmaking to found the Patuxent Riverkeeper in 2004. For 16 years, the Patuxent Riverkeeper organization has empowered citizens to advocate for their right to a healthy environment. Today he’s also lending his leadership skills as a Director’s Circle volunteer with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centeer, and spoke on environmental justice this April at the Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism digital summit. Learn more about some of the Patuxent Riverkeepers’ greatest environmental wins, and how the green movement can evolve to meet the needs of a diverse future.  Edited for brevity and clarity.

Fred Tutman paddling a red kayak on a river

Fred Tutman (Credit: Audobon Naturalist Society)

What motivated you to be involved in conservation?
I thought that my future was going to be in radio, television, media communications. As an activist, because I’d always been an activist, I thought that was the best portal for me to change my corner of the world. And, you know, I did that for 27 years…But I was bored and didn’t feel like I was making a difference in all of these awful problems in the world we were making films about…

So I decided to go to law school, because I knew nobody who knew me thought I could do that, just because I hadn’t done that sort of thing before….It was a different world, a different life for me. It was really hard to reboot. I literally had to change my friends. Not because people were hostile to the work. They didn’t understand how it fit into my past endeavors. And so people were baffled by it. A midlife crisis, I think someone accused me of that. Click to continue »

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Preserving Salmon in Alaska’s Kenai Lowlands

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 15th, 2020

by Kristen Minogue

“Not everybody in Alaska is a fisherman. But all of us live on salmon land….If you look at a map of the Kenai Peninsula, it just looks like a cardiovascular system. Salmon are like the heartbeat.”

These words, spoken by a young Alaska fisherwoman named Hannah Heimbuch, open a short documentary the Smithsonian created called The Heartbeat. Featured in the D.C. Environmental Film Festival this March, it tells the story of Alaska’s Kenai Lowlands—one of the few places on Earth where sustainable salmon management remains possible. Click to continue »

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In Florida’s Oceans, It’s DNA vs. Disease

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 14th, 2020
Patch of mostly brown branching corals underwater, with one infected yellow and white coral

Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) with white band disease. (Credit: Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn)

by Kristen Minogue

Parasitic slime nets attacking seagrasses. A disease that melts coral tissue down to the skeleton, whose exact cause remains unknown. If these aren’t the first places you’d look for optimism, you’re not alone.

Katrina Lohan heads SERC’s Marine Disease Ecology Lab. She and postdoc Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn studied both ailments in Florida. They look for hope in the microscopic realm of DNA. Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Student Activist Kallan Benson on Standing Up for Climate Change

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 14th, 2020

by Kristen Minogue

Teenage girl in blue tie-dye shirt sitting on a bench holding a golden retriever. Posters behind her read "Stop playing with our future" and "Fridays for Future" in rainbow marker.

Kallan Benson with her family’s golden retriever, Osage. The dog is their unofficial “Climate Anxiety Therapy.” (Credit: Carl Benson)

It would be tempting say Kallan Benson isn’t your typical teenage student. Homeschooled since preschool age, she has plenty of memories of doing homeschool programs at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center with her younger brother, Reese.

“We made toothpaste one time,” she recalled. “Reese’s group, him and two of our other friends, their strategy was just put everything in….Every flavor, they just put it all in. No one wanted to taste it.”

But as an organizer for the grassroots climate group Fridays For Future, Kallan is one of thousands. Possibly even tens of thousands. The tidal wave of students striking to demand climate action is gaining momentum, and Benson is among those leading the charge. Click to continue »

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Posted in Climate Change, Ecology, Participatory Science, Volunteers | 1 Response »

Christine Arena: Determined Optimism and Letting Science Speak

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on April 14th, 2020
head and shoulders picture of young woman with brown hair, in a black jacket and white blouse

Filmmaker and science communicator Christine Arena (Photo courtesy of Christine Arena)

A communicator with a passion for environmental and social issues, Christina Arena left her mark on the environmental film world with the 2018 series Let Science Speak. The short documentary videos go beyond the “war on science” headlines to humanize scientists and let them tell their own stories. Today, she’s donating her time and talent to help produce videos for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). Her newest short film will premiere this April at the Smithsonian’s digital Earth Optimism Summit April 22-24. In this Q&A, she talks about what gives her purpose and optimism. Click to continue »

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Intern Jessenia Suarez Talks Heatwave Biology, Being Latina in STEM

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on February 14th, 2020

by Alison Haigh

Young woman in a blue jacket standing on hill overlooking ocean

Jessenia Suarez (Credit: Alison Haigh/SERC)

Science comes with some wacky challenges. In the world of marine invasions, that might include sunburns from afternoons tying equipment to docks or worrying about how much seafood powder to feed a plate of invertebrates. But when someone dons a lab coat, they don’t shed their homelife, background, and personal responsibilities. At SERC-West, intern Jessenia Suarez got to know some of those unique challenges while working on her research project. But one of her biggest challenges was outside the lab.

Suarez is a senior marine biology major at San Francisco State University who found her passion for biology in her second year at community college. In summer 2019, she studied how a group of underwater creatures known as the fouling community responds to changes in water temperature. She found the work exciting and refreshing—but she admits that her biggest challenges were balancing the internship with a two-hour commute and finding childcare for her two-year-old daughter, Leia.

“I would spend about an hour and a half with her when I got home, and then it would be time to sleep,” she said. “Not only that, but I was still working my other job [as a CVS pharmacy technician]—very few hours, but it’s still time away from her. It was hard for me, and it was hard for her too.”

Besides caring for her daughter and working a second job, she also had to balance classes. Yet despite a heavier workload than the average intern, Suarez loved the internship experience, and she’s passionate about pursuing research after her degree.

“I had an idea that I liked doing research, but being in charge of my own project brought it to a whole new level, ” Suarez said. “I now know what to expect, and have a feeling that I can handle it.” Click to continue »

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Could Seaweed Save Oysters? Teacher-Fellow Jason Thomas Brings Science From Beach To Classroom

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on February 14th, 2020
Man standing on hill overlooking the ocean

Jason Thomas (Credit: Alison Haigh/SERC)

by Alison Haigh

If there’s any constant in SERC research fellow Jason Thomas’ diverse career, it’s that he’s always looking for opportunities to learn something new. He’s a science teacher, and that’s one thing that brought him to education: It keeps him in a constant state of learning.

Originally, though, he wanted to be a doctor. After getting a bachelor’s in sociology and a post-baccalaureate in biology, he worked in a molecular lab analyzing octopus eyes, and then in a mosquito hatchery. He then got a medical doctorate—but after having trouble securing a residency, he found himself going back to school for a master’s in teaching.

“Once, someone called me ‘Graduation Jason’ because all I do is graduate,” Thomas joked. Now that he’s a science teacher at Browning High School in Long Beach, California, he’s helping his students graduate with the skills they need to pursue careers in STEM.

But even on his summer breaks, he’s still learning. This summer, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s West Coast lab in Tiburon, California, hosted Thomas through the state’s STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR) program. The program gives early-career science teachers authentic research opportunities. Now that he’s back at school in Long Beach, he’ll bring two summers of research experiences to inspire his students. Click to continue »

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Do We Live in the Plasticene? 12 Words to Know for the Age of Plastics.

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on January 15th, 2020

by Kristen Minogue

Welcome to the Plasticene. If you’re under age 70, it’s possible you’ve lived in the Plasticene for your entire life. It’s a new geologic age some scientists have proposed to mark the near-universal spread of plastic around Earth. Since the 1950s, researchers say, we’ve been living in the Age of Plastics.

You may have heard of another relatively new time period—the Anthropocene, or Epoch of Humans. (Yes, we live in confusing times.) However, the Age of Plastics isn’t meant to replace that. Instead, the Age of Plastics is a smaller piece of the Epoch of Humans that started in the mid-20th century. Scientists contend it deserves special recognition because, unlike many things we leave behind, plastics can leave a distinct mark in the fossil record.

Many strange things have begun appearing in the Age of Plastics, especially in our oceans and along our shores. Some are so new, scientists are just finding words for them. What do you call an animal that makes its home on plastic? How about one that accidentally swallows a bottle cap? For that reason, a team led by Linsey Haram from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Williams College-Mystic Seaport and Hawai’i’s International Pacific Research Center put together a list of terms poised to become more common in the future. Here are 12 words that describe the new age:

The report, “A Plasticene Lexicon,” appeared in the January 2020 issue of Marine Pollution Bulletin. It’s available for download here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110714

To read about the discovery of plasticrusts by Ignacio Gestoso and the team at Portugal’s Marine and Environmental Science’s Centre, check out this CNN article or find the journal article here.

Learn more:

Video with Linsey Haram: Can animals live in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

Web Article: Tsunami Enabled Hundreds of Species to Raft Across the Pacific

Web Article: These Creatures Crossed the Pacific on Plastic Tsunami Debris. Now, A New Struggle for Survival.

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Posted in Ecology, Publications | 5 Responses »

Eight Ways We Can Save the Ocean’s Oxygen

Posted by Kristen Goodhue on December 10th, 2019

by Kristen Minogue

School of beige and blue fish swimming over a reef

Brown Chromis fish in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. (Credit: Emma Hickerson/NOAA)

The ocean is losing its breath. Two years ago, an international team of scientists known as GO2NE (the Global Ocean Oxygen Network) published a report in Science with a stark picture of oxygen loss in Earth’s waters: In the open ocean, the amount of water with zero oxygen has spiked fourfold since the mid-20th century. In coastal water bodies, places with dangerously low oxygen (2 milligrams per liter or less) have increased more than 10-fold. It’s a problem not just for animals, but for people and economies—especially those that rely on tourism or subsistence fishing.

On Dec. 7, a new report emerged from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The ocean could lose 3-4% of its total oxygen by the end of the century if nothing changes, with losses even higher in the top, biodiversity-rich 1,000 meters. Large fish like tuna, sharks and marlin are among the most vulnerable. In the closing chapter, led by Denise Breitburg of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, they created a massive blueprint for resuscitating the ocean.

We’ve pulled out the highlights below, but the key lies in cracking two global conundrums—nutrient pollution and climate change. Nutrient pollution happens when chemicals like nitrogen and phosphorus stream into the water and fertilize massive growths of algae, which suck oxygen out of the water. Climate change’s role is more subtle, but just as powerful: Warmer water can’t hold as much dissolved oxygen. Warm water also doesn’t mix as well, so oxygen from the atmosphere that’s abundant near the ocean surface doesn’t reach everywhere that needs it.

Fortunately, these two problems are linked. Cleaning up nutrient pollution can help solve climate change, and vice-versa—and the ocean will breathe easier for it. Here are eight highlights from the new report: Click to continue »

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