Ecosystem Response to Atmospheric Deposition

Coal-fired power plants and other electricity generating facilities historically released sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury compounds that traveled long distances through the atmosphere before settling across New York State’s lands and waters. Before modern pollution controls, millions of pounds of these compounds were deposited across the State each year, damaging sensitive ecosystems and public health. NYSERDA’s Environmental Research Program monitors and studies how these impacted ecosystems are recovering as state and federal air pollution reduction policies take effect. Completed projects are documented in final project reports.

Areas of Research

NYSERDA’s ecosystem research focuses on two long-standing environmental impacts of power generation: acid rain and mercury pollution. Both pollutants travel far from their source before depositing on the landscape, and both require decades of monitoring to understand how—and how well—ecosystems recover.

The Adirondack Long-Term Monitoring (ALTM) Program began in the 1980s and provides monitoring data to assess the impacts of acid rain on the Adirondack ecoregion. In conjunction with various contractors, NYSERDA, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have supported the ALTM Program since 1998. This cooperative arrangement has proven to be successful in providing high-quality data documenting environmental change over several decades and providing a better understanding of the processes involved in ecosystem acidification and its recovery through interpretation of trends and other data analysis.

• USGS Adirondack Long-Term Monitoring Data
• Adirondack Long-Term Monitoring at Huntington

Mercury is a toxic pollutant that accumulates in fish and affects humans and animals that eat fish. Mercury is released into the environment by human activities, such as coal-fired electric generation and waste incineration. As this mercury is released into the air, it can travel long distances and deposit in watersheds, where it enters aquatic food webs. NYSERDA’s Environmental Research Program supports research into patterns and trends in mercury deposition, mercury cycling, and mercury bioaccumulation in New York State watersheds to inform energy-related pollution reduction and health-related policies.

• Synthesis of Mercury Inputs, Exposure and Effects in NY
• Mercury Pollution and Adirondack Loons
• Mercury Ratios in Adirondack Stream Insects [PDF]
• Mercury Dynamics in Finger Lakes Fish and Invertebrates [PDF]