Metal heads and body burdens: Lake Michigan turtles can’t get the lead out
You likely won’t find any painted and snapping turtles headbanging to Metallica in Lake Michigan wetlands. But heavy metal runs in their veins. These turtles accumulate heavy metals in their tissues, according to a recent study in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. Some of those metals come from local industries. “There’s reason to believe the levels of metals like cadmium, chromium, copper and lead are impacted by anthropogenic sources,” said Matt Cooper, a research scientist at Northland College’s Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation in Ashland, Wisconsin and co-author of the study. “They are much higher than would occur naturally, and the geology in the areas they were studying wasn’t known to have high levels of those contaminants.” Click the link to learn more…
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Education
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Health & Medical
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Ready for anything
Species Facts…
Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni) is found in several areas of mainland Italy along with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. In Spain it occurs in Catalonia and on the Balearic islands, Majorca and Menorca. In France it is restricted to the south (Varoise) and the island of Corsica.
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Photo from Jack Pearce, Flickr.
