Director, Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program
Research Professor,
Department of Biological Sciences
Project Leader, Project 2 and
Leader, Research Translation Core
Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program
Dartmouth College
HB 6044
Class of ’78 Life Sciences Center, Room 126
78 College Street
Hanover, NH 03755-3576
USA
Tel: 603-646-2376
Fax: 603-646-1347
E-mail: Celia.Y.Chen@Dartmouth.Edu
Areas of Expertise: Aquatic ecology, ecotoxicology, multiple stressors and contaminants
Research:
Dr. Celia Chen is an aquatic ecologist whose research over the last 24 years has focused on the fate and effects of metal contaminants in aquatic food webs both in freshwater and marine ecosystems. She has studied the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of mercury and other metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead, zinc) in benthic and pelagic invertebrates and trophic transfer to fish. She has conducted metal bioavailability studies in the laboratory using freshwater and estuarine crustaceans and fish, and has also investigated metal bioaccumulation and trophic transfer in field studies in lakes and estuaries in the Northeast US. Her research questions focus on the chemical and ecological factors that influence metal uptake, including salinity, natural organic matter, feeding strategy, and food web structure. She also investigates the influence of species and size on the co-occurrence of metal contaminants and fatty acids in coastal fish tissue as well as the environmental factors predicting co-occurrence of metal and organic contaminants in fish and invertebrates in lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. Dr. Chen has also worked to bring mercury and arsenic science to policy by gathering groups of scientists to produce synthesis documents, providing scientific input to federal agencies, and through her involvement in the Fate and Transport Partnership in the implementation of the Minamata Convention, the international treaty on the control of mercury.