Research Interests
Since my master’s, I’ve mostly focused on contaminants, and mercury in particular, but my research ranges from broad-scale continental assessments to individual-scale drivers of mercury exposure. Probably because I was first trained in ecology, I find that to be a good ecotoxicologist, I must first be a good ecologist. Many of the questions that I ask related to contaminants are also questions of food web structure, habitat-drivers and animal behavior. I think mercury and contaminants have become my passion because they fuse basic ecological questions with applied conservation issues.
Collaborations, both with other scientists in my field and young undergraduates being trained, are integral to my research program. Being surrounded by enthusiastic people with different perspectives helps me stay excited about my research and keeps me on my toes.
Collaborations, both with other scientists in my field and young undergraduates being trained, are integral to my research program. Being surrounded by enthusiastic people with different perspectives helps me stay excited about my research and keeps me on my toes.
2018 Research - Acadia Bug Project
My field project for 2018 was funded by a Second Century Stewardship Fellowship from AAAS, NPS and the Schoodic Institute. A unique aspect of this project is that we will be partnering with the Park Service and citizen scientists to collect much of the data. Visit www.acadiabugproject.com for information about our summer!
Previous Research Highlights
1. Broad scale (regional and continental) understanding of contaminant exposure in sensitive bird species.
At the broadest scale, I’m interested in understanding why contaminants vary across the landscape, in order to predict areas and species of conservation concern. I’ve been lucky to be a part of several large scale collaborations that lead to synthesis projects to understand contaminants across a geographic scale larger than I could have done on my own. With support from Biodiversity Research Institute, I synthesized a decade of songbird mercury exposure data to understand patterns in songbird Hg exposure across eastern North America. As part of my dissertation, I joined the Western North American Mercury Synthesis project, and ended up working outside of my comfort zone to author a paper using fish data across the western US and Canada to understand Hg risk to fish-eating birds across this wide geographic region.
2. Food web structure and how this impacts contaminant exposure
I’m very interested in how we can use stable isotopes to understand bird prey preferences and how this impacts their contaminant exposure. For example, we know that riparian songbirds are exposed to aquatic mercury from the prey that they eat; songbirds that feed at higher trophic levels consistently show elevated Hg concentrations. Despite this, we still do not fully understand how an individual- or species-level reliance on aquatic prey could influence their Hg bioaccumulation. My dissertation looks to understand how a) Hg availability varies between aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate prey, b) how stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen can be used as signatures of aquatic or terrestrial diet in a bird and c) if the amount of aquatic-based prey in the diet of an individual songbird can be correlated to their Hg exposure. Previous work focused on both aquatic (Common Loons) and terrestrial food webs (riparian songbirds).
3. Drivers of individual differences in contaminant exposure and effects
At the heart of ecotoxicology is a concern for wild populations of animals harmed by anthropogenic contaminants. We must understand mechanisms for exposure and how organisms are affected by this exposure. I first worked with the South River Science Team to understand how reproductive success of Carolina Wrens was impacted by high mercury exposure. I've also worked on Common Loon reproductive success in the Adirondacks. More recently, I’ve teamed with researchers at Audubon and the Louisiana Bird Observatory to assess mercury changes throughout the annual cycle of resident and migratory birds in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This team looks to use Hg information to understand population dynamics and epigenetic changes to bird communities and individuals.
4. Understanding how we test for mercury exposure
As I’ve gotten more involved with contaminant research, I’ve realized that there is a lot of basic understanding about how we test for exposure that isn’t well known. Working with undergraduates at Oregon State University, we have been working to figure out if and how feathers can be used to test for mercury exposure instead of blood or internal organs of songbirds. Our preliminary findings show major differences among feather tracts, with relatively low correlation to internal tissues. I've also worked with other in my lab group at the USGS to understand how we can use amphibian toes as a nonlethal tissue indicator.
At the broadest scale, I’m interested in understanding why contaminants vary across the landscape, in order to predict areas and species of conservation concern. I’ve been lucky to be a part of several large scale collaborations that lead to synthesis projects to understand contaminants across a geographic scale larger than I could have done on my own. With support from Biodiversity Research Institute, I synthesized a decade of songbird mercury exposure data to understand patterns in songbird Hg exposure across eastern North America. As part of my dissertation, I joined the Western North American Mercury Synthesis project, and ended up working outside of my comfort zone to author a paper using fish data across the western US and Canada to understand Hg risk to fish-eating birds across this wide geographic region.
- Jackson, A.K., D.C. Evers, C.A. Eagles-Smith, J.T. Ackerman, J.J. Willacker, J.E. Elliott, J.M. Lepak, S.S. Vander Pol, C.E. Bryan. 2016. Mercury risk to avian piscivores across western United States and Canada. Science of the Total Environment. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.197
- Jackson, A.K., D.C. Evers, E.M. Adams, D.A. Cristol, C. Eagles-Smith, S.T. Edmonds, C.E. Gray, B. Hoskins, O.P. Lane, A. Sauer, T. Tear. 2015. Songbirds as sentinels of mercury in terrestrial habitats of eastern North America. Ecotoxicology 24:453-467
2. Food web structure and how this impacts contaminant exposure
I’m very interested in how we can use stable isotopes to understand bird prey preferences and how this impacts their contaminant exposure. For example, we know that riparian songbirds are exposed to aquatic mercury from the prey that they eat; songbirds that feed at higher trophic levels consistently show elevated Hg concentrations. Despite this, we still do not fully understand how an individual- or species-level reliance on aquatic prey could influence their Hg bioaccumulation. My dissertation looks to understand how a) Hg availability varies between aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate prey, b) how stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen can be used as signatures of aquatic or terrestrial diet in a bird and c) if the amount of aquatic-based prey in the diet of an individual songbird can be correlated to their Hg exposure. Previous work focused on both aquatic (Common Loons) and terrestrial food webs (riparian songbirds).
- Schoch, N., M., A.K. Jackson, M. Duron, D.C. Evers, M.J. Glennon, C.T. Driscoll, X. Yu, H. Simonin, and A.K. Sauer. 2014. Wildlife criterion value for the Common Loon (Gavia immer) in the Adirondack Park, New York, USA. Waterbirds 37(sp1):76-84.
- Jackson, A.K., D.C. Evers, S.B. Folsom, A.M. Condon, J. Diener, L.F. Goodrick, A.J. McGann, J. Schmerfeld, and D.A. Cristol. 2011. Mercury exposure in terrestrial birds far downstream of an historical point source. Environmental Pollution 159:3302-3308.
3. Drivers of individual differences in contaminant exposure and effects
At the heart of ecotoxicology is a concern for wild populations of animals harmed by anthropogenic contaminants. We must understand mechanisms for exposure and how organisms are affected by this exposure. I first worked with the South River Science Team to understand how reproductive success of Carolina Wrens was impacted by high mercury exposure. I've also worked on Common Loon reproductive success in the Adirondacks. More recently, I’ve teamed with researchers at Audubon and the Louisiana Bird Observatory to assess mercury changes throughout the annual cycle of resident and migratory birds in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This team looks to use Hg information to understand population dynamics and epigenetic changes to bird communities and individuals.
- Jackson, A.K., D.C. Evers, M.A. Etterson, A.M. Condon, S.B. Folsom, J. Detweiler, J. Schmerfeld, and D.A. Cristol. 2011. Modeling the effect of mercury exposure on the reproductive success of a free-living terrestrial songbird, the Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus). Auk 128(4):759-769.
- Schoch, N., M.J. Glennon, D.C. Evers, M. Duron, A. Jackson, C. Driscoll, J. Ozard, and A. Sauer. The impact of Hg exposure on the Common Loon (Gavia immer) population in the Adirondack Park, New York State. Waterbirds 37(sp1):133-146.
4. Understanding how we test for mercury exposure
As I’ve gotten more involved with contaminant research, I’ve realized that there is a lot of basic understanding about how we test for exposure that isn’t well known. Working with undergraduates at Oregon State University, we have been working to figure out if and how feathers can be used to test for mercury exposure instead of blood or internal organs of songbirds. Our preliminary findings show major differences among feather tracts, with relatively low correlation to internal tissues. I've also worked with other in my lab group at the USGS to understand how we can use amphibian toes as a nonlethal tissue indicator.
- Pfleeger, A.Z., C.A. Eagles-Smith, B.M. Kowalski, G. Herring, J.J. Willacker, A.K. Jackson, J.R. Pierce. 2016. From tails to toes: developing nonlethal tissue indicators of mercury exposure in five amphibian species. Ecotoxicology 25(3):574 – 583.