In the late 1980's it was revealed that much of the remaining 900 million acres of the Florida Everglades contained game fish (Bass) that exceeded the State of Florida's "do not consume" advisory limit of 1.5 ppm mercury. Mercury levels observed in game fish from this region are some of the highest ever observed for a large area not directly affected by a point source. In response to this, several State and Federal agencies joined together to initiate several mercury studies in this region to provide a better understanding of the causes of this problem. This study is part of a large, multi-agency effort to understand the nature of mercury cycling in the water, sediments and biota of the Florida Everglades. This project has a strong interdisciplinary component. Currently there are several sub-projects that focus on wide ranging topics, including:

1. process-level studies of mercury species and phase transformations on spatial and temporal scales,
2. mercury methylation and demethylation studies,
3. DOC-mercury interaction studies,
4. sulfur cycling studies,
5. mercury accumulation and diagenetic processes in peat,
6. biological uptake of mercury and lower food chain transfer pathways of mercury, and,
7. groundwater/surface water exchange studies.

While each of these projects has several specific objectives, the overall project objective is to provide resource managers responsible for making restoration decisions, with scientific information on the hydrologic, biologic, and geochemical processes controlling mercury cycling.

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