Statistics and Biology: A Correlation Made in Heaven

Methylmercury contamination within fish populations is an important toxin that affect human, animal, and environmental health, serving as a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and endocrine-disruptor (compounds that in some way alter the signaling of the hormone system. The impacts of exceeding safe dietary methylmercury levels were tragically made clear in Ontario, Canada, where a First Nations community in Grassy Narrows are living with the consequences of methylmercury poisoning in the fish supply. The fish were contaminated due to the dumping of mercury in the traditional waterways of the First Nation community. In 2016, there were highly publicized protests in Muskrat Falls, Labrador, Canada, where the Inuit people raised direct concerns about the potential for a proposed Nalcor Energy hydroelectric dam, to increase mercury levels in fish in those waters, which are an integral part of their traditional diet. Despite significant protests, the project was completed in 2019 and 41 km were flooded. This module uses these real-world examples as a jumping-off point for exercises that will guide case-study driven discussion on mathematical, biological and ethical concerns.

Students are introduced to concepts of sampling distributions and hypothesis testing using a simulation applet, elementary hypothesis tests, t-tests, and p-values as they compare a given fish population for methylmercury levels (using real and hypothetical data) against real-world mercury standards.

In this activity, students use real water chemistry data and descriptive statistics in Excel to examine primary productivity in an urban estuary of the Salish Sea. They will consider how actual data do or do not support expected annual trends.