Mercury In River Moves Into Terrestrial Food Chain Through Spiders Fed

[Achilles Tang]

Songbirds feeding near the contaminated South River are showing high levels of mercury, even though they aren't eating food from the river itself, according to a new article in Science. Mercury is one of the world's most troublesome pollutants, especially in water. "The birds eat a lot of spiders... The spiders have a lot of mercury in them and are delivering the mercury to these songbirds," one of the researchers said.

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