By John (Jack) Bulger

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dolby

Abstract

Anthropogenic combustion of fossil fuels and other human activities related to development and industrialization have contributed significantly to the release of heavy metals into the environment and atmosphere. Metals typically have negative impacts on both human and environmental health when released in excess, which is a continually rising threat as the human population continues to grow and spread. This paper presents a study in which muscle and liver samples of migratory Canada geese and resident Canada geese living on the East Coast of the United States are analyzed for heavy metals, comparing the relative concentrations based on whether the geese are migratory or residential. The migratory geese are hypothesized to have lower concentrations of heavy metals than the permanent resident geese on average, because the resident geese live in the heavily-developed East Coast of the US, whereas the migratory geese spend a significant amount of time per year in remote northern Canada. For this study, muscle and liver samples from migratory and permanent-resident geese were collected and dried by heating, and then ground to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. They were then digested with nitric acid to form liquid samples and diluted to 25 mL per sample, and then tested using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry to find the concentrations of various heavy metals.