Mercury Strategy for the Bay-Delta Ecosystem - CALFED Bay-Delta ...

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management; new information gaps will arise as existing gaps are filled, and ongoing evaluation
is a key element of adaptive management.
VI. MANAGEMENT OF A MERCURY SCIENCE PROGRAM
The global scientific effort on mercury has produced rapid advances and several landmark
discoveries in the past decade (Wiener et al. 2003). Recent scientific progress in the Bay-Delta
ecosystem has also been substantial (Stephenson et al. 2002), and increasingly powerful
analytical tools and approaches are becoming available for addressing scientific and management
questions concerning mercury in the ecosystem. A CALFED mercury program would catalyze
substantive advances in understanding of mercury cycling and its effects in the Bay-Delta
ecosystem, an ecosystem of national importance and renown. The decision-making arena for
management and restoration of this ecosystem is expected to be rigorous, and funded projects
should meet high standards of reliability, scientific defensibility, and productivity.
The impressive recent progress notwithstanding, critical information gaps remain and much of
substance needs to be learned regarding the behavior of mercury in this ecosystem, the risks
posed to resident biota and humans, and the steps that can be taken to address the problem.
Mercury pollution in the Bay-Delta ecosystem represents an enormous challenge for science and
ecosystem management. Managers attempting to reduce methylmercury exposure in this
ecosystem must contend with a highly complex biogeochemical cycle, overlain on an ecosystem
characterized by enormous complexity, large scale, and pronounced spatiotemporal dynamics.
An interdisciplinary effort will be needed to implement this strategy and to apply the new
information produced towards adaptive management of the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Many of the
core components recommended in section V of this document will require multidisciplinary
teams of scientists, as well as the sustained involvement of the appropriate environmental
planners and resource managers.
Recommended Approaches for Allocation of Program Funding
Competitive Proposal Review and Selection Process. The competitive Proposal Solicitation
Package process used by CALFED is an appropriate mechanism for allocating scientific effort to
most of the core components of the mercury strategy outlined in section V of this document. An
exception is the core component “Monitoring of Mercury in Fish, Health-Risk Assessment, and
Risk Communication,” for which the competitive proposal process is not considered optimal.
The competitive proposal process would, however, be appropriate for one part of the mercury
monitoring program; that is the special studies needed to support health-risk assessment and risk
communication (goal 1, objective 5). Detailed recommendations for developing an effective
monitoring program are presented in the next subsection.
Requests for proposals should encourage the development of collaborative interdisciplinary
proposals by multi-institutional teams of investigators. In addition to judging scientific merit and
relevance to ecosystem management, the proposal review and selection process should include
critical evaluation of the scientific stature, leadership skills, and managerial experience of the
leading principal investigator (and project manager, if applicable) on prior large projects, as well
as the experience and effectiveness of co-investigators as team members on large
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