Senator George J. Mitchell Center & Maine's Sustainability Solutions Initiative

Old Town Science Students Raising Dragonflies as Part of UMaine Research on Mercury Contamination

A small team of Old Town High School science students is collaborating with University of Maine researcher Sarah Nelson who is using dragonflies larvae as bio-sentinels for mercury in wetlands, stream watersheds and lakes across the Northeast.
In their classroom laboratory, the science students have set up mesocosms — mini-ecosystems in the form of tanks of stream water — where adult dragonflies they captured have laid eggs. Now that the approximately 300 eggs have hatched, the students are studying how — and at what rate — mercury accumulates as the dragonfly larvae grow.

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