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"Even society as a whole, a nation or all existing societies put together, are not owners of the Earth. They are merely its occupants, it's users; and like good caretakers, they must hand it down improved to subsequent generations"

    -Karl Marx, Capital, Vol 1

This is a story-map website of the problem of mercury bioaccumulation and biomagnification. The story map provides an important narrative from a Political Ecology perspective that acknowledges multi-scalar connectivity of ecosystems (local, regional and global) and the existential connectivity of humans to the ecological systems in which they live thus emphasizing the importance of environmental protection. The Cache Creek Watershed of California provides and important case study that reveals Ecosystem Services impacts resulting from mercury mining and the use of mercury for gold mining

  • Ostrom's Socio-Ecological-Systems (SES) conceptual model embedded with Ecosystem Services as the Resource Units (RU) is employed.
  • The SES model represents the Political Ecology of mercury bioaccumulation in the Cache Creek Watershed.
  • The Cache Creek Watershed has important lessons for communities still using mercury for gold mining, the main one being impacts on fish and the food web. 
Political Ecology: Study of the relationships between coupled human-environment systems, or Socio-Ecological-Systems (SES)
The SES model is applied to two time periods - mercury mining time period and the current time period.
Use the tabs at the top of this page to see the results!
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin! Symptoms of mercury toxicity include:

  • loss of peripheral vision

  • "pins and needles" feelings, usually in the hands, feet, and around the mouth

  • lack of coordination of movements

  • impairment of speech, hearing, walking

  • muscle weakness

  • changes in nerve responses

  • poor performance on tests of mental function

  • tremors

  • emotional changes (mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness)

  • insomnia

  • neuromuscular changes (weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching)

  • headaches

  • disturbances in sensations

Mercury
Effects Wildlife
too!!

Mercury bioaccumulation is a global-scale problem with multiple sources making it an issue of Global Change (similar to climate change and biodiversity loss, among others).  Mercury bioaccumulation is a widespread problem in California prompting the necessity for multi-agency cooperation for remediation.

 

The tabs at the top of this page will take you to important information about mercury bioaccumulation at the local scale (Cache Creek Watershed), the regional scale (California) and the global scale as well as insights into impacts of mercury on Ecosystem Services. 

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Elinor Ostrom's (2009) Socio-Ecological-Systems framework is employed as a conceptual model of the Political Ecology of mercury bioaccumulation in the Cache Creek Watershed with connectivity to downstream watersheds and the global system. Ecosystem Services is embedded in the framework as a major component to reveal impacts to the watershed ecosystem and the vital services it provides!  The framework is applied for an earlier time period when mercury was being mined and used for gold mining, and for the current time period that has environmental regulations thus providing support for remediation. 

Mercury has a Global Cycle similar to the Hydrologic Cycle!
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