Initial flow chart

 
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What we knew in week two: 
In the Everglades study, Mercury Studies in the Florida Everglades,, anthropogenic mercury which has accumulated at low concentrations in the atmosphere is cited as the primary source of mercury contamination. This atmospheric mercury is deposited through rain and runoff and becomes a part of the bottom sediments of the wetland area . 
 
     Sulfate-reducing bacteria change mercury (II) into methyl mercury (CH3Hg) It is unclear whether the transport of mercury from bacteria to plankton occurs via direct consumption of bacteria or through osmosis.  Mercury is transported and magnified through the food chain from plankton to small fish to large fish to human beings.  Biomagnification occurs because large animals eat large numbers of smaller organisms for long periods of time.  Factors such as the pH of the aqueous environment, the temperature of the water, the amount of dissolved organic carbon, the numbers and types of organisms at each trophic level all play into the system as variables.  In addition, there are other known and unknown variables which affect the biomagnification process.