With fish consumption advisories in effect for every New England state, the fact that mercury pollution is problematic is no surprise. But when local scientists pulled together recent research into how mercury has affected a wide range of fish and wildlife species, they learned that the problem is farther-reaching than they had ever imagined.

“Wildlife are on the front lines of the mercury contamination problem,” said Felice Stadler of the National Wildlife Federation during a Tuesday morning teleconference.

The four-year effort to collect and compile data about mercury levels in water, soil, trees and wildlife drew from more than 30,000 measurements taken by more than 50 scientists, including men and women working in Maine. On Tuesday, the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham released its “Mercury Connections” report so that the general public has an understanding of how mercury pollution can affect their lives.

“For the first time, scientists have been able to look at all the data at the same time,” said David Evers, director of the institute.

Those data helped scientists identify nine sites as biological “hot spots” for regional mercury contamination. Four of those sites are in Maine – Rangeley Lakes, the Down East region, the Upper Penobscot River watershed, and midcoast areas downriver of the former HoltraChem plant on the Penobscot in Orrington.

“A number of these hot spots are in parts of the country that are far from industrial centers,” Stadler said.

The rural nature of many of these sites exemplifies one of the challenges of cleaning up mercury pollution. Sites such as the one in Orrington, where a single source can be identified, are rare. More frequently, mercury is deposited on trees, lakes and streams from air pollution. As much of 40 percent of the mercury pollution in the country originates from coal-fired power plants and can travel many miles.

Mercury is an element, so it never breaks down. In the presence of solar radiation, however, it can be transformed into a form called methylmercury, which easily travels through food chains stored in the tissues of insects, birds, fish and, ultimately, predators such as humans.

Fish are frequently used to inform people about the mercury problem since so many New Englanders seek out fish as healthful sources of protein, particularly as health experts tout the value of fish oils. Tuesday’ s report indicated that average mercury levels in lake trout, landlocked salmon, bass and pike exceed the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s health standard.

“If we value the ability to consume fish, then we should value trying to reduce this problem,” Eric Miller, president of Ecosystems Research Group in Norwich, Vt., said Tuesday.

Data indicate that such wetland species as salamanders and crayfish, as well as the mink and otters that eat them, also are suffering the effects of mercury contamination.

“It’s bird-watching, it’s hunting, it’s fishing … millions of Americans value these natural resources,” added Lisa Swann of the National Wildlife Federation.

Less expected was the studies’ discovery that animals that live nowhere near water bodies, such as the Bicknell’s thrush, a bird that prefers mountainous regions, have high concentrations of mercury in their bodies. “Until now, we thought that mercury in its toxic form was primarily a concern in water environments,” Evers said. “Our discovery of mercury in forest songbirds turns that wisdom on its head.”

Scientists now believe that mercury deposited on the leaves of trees makes its way into the ecosystem and eventually into the thrushes.

Loons, which have been studied extensively in Maine and throughout North America by the BioDiversity Research Institute, provide one of the best indicators of how mercury may affect people who eat fish.

High concentrations of mercury in the environment occasionally can kill loons directly, but lower levels, too, have been shown to affect the birds’ neurological systems and change their behavior. For example, a bird suffering tremors from low-level mercury poisoning will survive but may be unable to fly, eat or breed normally.

A mercury-contaminated bird also is far less likely to successfully incubate an egg, according to researchers. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, humans face similar impacts, as 8 percent of American women of childbearing age have mercury in their blood at high enough levels believed to pose significant risk to a fetus.

“The jury is out [on the fact] that mercury is toxic and the effects are very real,” Stadler said.

“It’s important not to stall on mercury policy decisions … until all our questions are answered,” she said.

The report was released just one day after three U.S. senators from New England – including Maine’s Olympia Snowe – called on the EPA to develop stricter controls on mercury emissions. The agency is expected to issue its mercury rule next week.

The Bush administration disputes a determination by the Clinton administration that mercury should be regulated as a hazardous substance, which would require about 450 power plants to invest in new technology to reduce their emissions. Instead, the EPA now favors a proposal, supported by the power generation industry, that would cap mercury emissions nationwide but allow individual plants to buy “credits” from cleaner plants rather than reduce their emissions. The agency believes that its plan could cut mercury emissions from coal-fueled power plants by 70 percent nationwide by 2019.

For the full “Mercury Connections” report, see www.briloon.org/mercury. The Associated Press contributed to this article.