Using dragonflies to measure mercury pollution

A citizen science program started more than a decade ago found that dragonflies can be used to measure mercury pollution. Research professor Celia Chen, director of Dartmouth’s Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program, explains the national research effort, which grew out of a Dartmouth-affiliated regional project to collect dragonfly larvae.

“It’s an important possible way to determine whether national and international mercury control policies are effective,” says Chen. “The dragonfly as a” biosentinel “or bioindicator can be a very useful method for determining change in landscape as well as change over time.”