Geochemical, biological, and landscape controls on mercury fate, transport, and impact in natural ecosystems

An increasingly large fraction of Earth's surface has been reshaped and contaminated by humans, leading experts to suggest we've entered into a new geologic epoch - the Anthropocene. Nowhere are these changes more obvious than in mining-impacted landscapes. Mining reshapes landscapes, liberates trace elements, and alters the fate, transport, and transformation of trace elements. I examine the extent to which mining both alters landscape features and mobilizes trace elements, and how these paired changes together determine the bioavailability of toxic trace elements. I focus on the mobilization and transformation of selenium and mercury from mountaintop mining in West Virginia; the biogeochemical interactions between selenium and mercury in ecosystems and organisms; and the fate of mercury derived from artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Peru.