I am currently graduate student working with Dr. William Bowerman at the University of Maryland, College Park. Our research focuses on using bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as a biomonitor for wildlife in the Great Lakes region. The monitoring program has been in place since 1961. The bald eagle is an ideal biosentinel because of it's apex position in the aquatic food web and its year-around residence in the Great Lake region. I collect blood samples from eagle nestlings and extract environmental contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides from their plasma. The long term biomonitoring program allows for comparison of contaminant levels spatially and temporally across the region.
