Original Metadata
type: Distribution
access URL: https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.558194c3e4b023124e8f0b10.xml
media type: text/xml
description: The metadata original format
format: XML
issued: 2022-08-07T09:23:38.791557
modified: 2025-11-20T14:17:30.765083

Digital Data
type: Distribution
access URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F78P5XKP
media type: application/http
description: Landing page for access to the data
format: XML
issued: 2022-08-07T09:23:38.791563
modified: 2025-11-20T14:17:30.765483

Historical methyl mercury in San Francisco Bay
type: Dataset
contact point: Organization
  fn: Steven E Schwarzbach
keyword: mercury
keyword: lake-tahoe
keyword: wyoming
keyword: amerigeoss
keyword: national
keyword: ice-cores
keyword: sediment
keyword: usgs-558194c3e4b023124e8f0b10
keyword: san-francisco-bay
keyword: ckan
keyword: geoss
keyword: united-states
keyword: california-ridgways-rail
keyword: geo
keyword: amerigeo
keyword: feathers
keyword: structural-equation-model
keyword: north-america
theme: {geospatial}
description: San Francisco Bay, California is considered a mercury-impaired watershed. Elevated concentrations of mercury are found in water and sediment as well as fish and estuarine birds. Sources of mercury to the watershed since 1845 include sediment-associated mercury from mercury mining, mercury losses from gold amalgamation activities in mines of the Sierra Nevada, aerial deposition of mercury from global and regional emissions to air, and the direct discharge of mercury to Bay waters associated with the urbanization and industrialization of the estuary. We assessed historical trends in mercury bioaccumulation by measuring mercury concentrations in feathers of the endangered California Ridgway’s rail (formerly California Clapper Rail) using museum specimens. We developed a structural equation model to attribute variation in historical mercury bioaccumulation in rails to sources of mercury, and estimated the toxicological consequences of extreme mercury exposure to rails from known correlations between feather and blood mercury concentrations.
issued: 2025-11-20T14:17:30.775309
modified: 20200827
spatial: Location

US Migrating
type: Agent