While laws to limit pollution have been around for decades, heavy metal pollutants like lead remain a problem in many areas. Lead and other metals in the soil or air can move through urban ecosystems, impacting the health of humans, plants and animals.
In a pair of new studies in Science of the Total Environment and forthcoming in Evolutionary Applications, researchers with the Minneapolis-St. Paul Long Term Ecological Research Program asked how this pollution might impact butterflies in greenspaces around the Twin Cities, and why some species may tolerate pollution better than others. They also wanted to know whether butterflies were absorbing lead through their food sources or through more direct routes of exposure to contaminated soil or air.