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Walter
Nelson Beyer |
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Telephone: 301-497-5703 Fax: 301-497-5624 Email: nbeyer@usgs.gov Zoologist |
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Primary Responsibilities:
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Education/Training: Ph.D., Cornell University, Ecology (1975) |
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| Areas of Expertise/Interest: Wildlife toxicology, environmental contaminants in food chains, soil biology | |
Accomplishments/Awards/Achievements: Based on years of research conducted by himself and colleagues, Dr. Beyer related sediment lead concentrations to injury to waterfowl in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin. He tied the contamination in the sediments directly to death and to sublethal measures of lead poisoning. The results became critical to the Department of the Interior's Coeur d'Alene River Basin Natural Resource Damage Assessment case, in which he was called as an expert witness. Dr. Beyer has
demonstrated that estimating the exposure of waterfowl to lead and to
related metals is simpler than thought previously. When field data were
examined, it became clear that exposure to lead depends mainly on the
amount of sediment ingested and the sediment lead concentration.
In a series of papers he showed that for a risk assessment on
waterfowl to be credible, the assessor must consider sediment ingestion.
The researcher received a Scientific Achievement Award from the
U.S. Geological Survey for this work. With coeditors Gary
Heinz and Amy Redmon-Norwood, Dr. Beyer edited a book entitled
"Environmental Contaminants in Wildlife: Interpreting Tissue
Concentrations," published in 1996. |
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Active Projects: Estimating injury from zinc smelting to the forest near Palmerton, Pennsylvania Toxicity of lead and zinc to wildlife |
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Publications/Products: Beyer, W. N., J. Dalgarn, S. Dudding, J. B. French, R. Mateo, J. Miesner,
L. Sileo, and J. Spann. 2005. Zinc and lead poisoning in wild birds in
the Tri-State Mining District (OK, KS, MO). Archives of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology. 48:108-117. Beyer,
W. N., D. J. Audet, G. H. Heinz, D. J. Hoffman and D. Day. 2000. Relation
of waterfowl poisoning to sediment lead concentrations in the Coeur
d'Alene River Basin. Ecotoxicology 9:207-218. Beyer, W. N., D. J.
Audet, A. Morton, J. K. Campbell and L. LeCaptain.
1998. Lead exposure of waterfowl ingesting Coeur d'Alene River
Basin Sediments. Journal of Environmental Quality 27:1533-153. Beyer, W. N., J. C.
Franson, L. N. Locke, R. K. Stroud and L. Sileo.
1998. Retrospective study of the diagnostic criteria in a
lead-poisoning survey of waterfowl. Archives of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology 35:506-512. Beyer, W. N., E. Connor, and S. Gerould. 1994. Survey of soil ingestion by wildlife. Journal of Wildlife Management 58:375-382. |
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