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Perhaps that's becasue they restricted their study to LIVE birds, which tend to be healthier than their dead cousins.

Wouldn't it be nice if this team could also take a look at the Sixth Street Embankment? Seems as if the same type of ecological processes are occuring there too.

remind me with "I Am A Legend" movie

Only toughest kind of green in this corner of Liberty State Park

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
By DIEGO CUPOLO
THE STAR LEDGER

What would New Jersey look like if every human being suddenly vanished?

Over time, miles of unused roads would be uprooted by trees, as unrestrained forests grew. Patchy grasslands would swallow contaminated industrial sites, and local wildlife would gradually find new dwellings in once-thriving urban areas.

It's a post-human scenario not too different from an area of Jersey City's Liberty State Park, according to researchers at Rutgers-Newark.

Though much of the park has been converted from an abandoned rail yard to the popular tourist attraction it is today, a 251-acre plot of contaminated land, barely touched by human activity for more than four decades, remains behind fences bearing signs that read: "No Trespassing: Hazardous Materials Area."

For the past two years, a team of Rutgers-Newark scientists has been conducting an extensive study of the site to better understand how nature adapts to heavy pollutants.

The team is searching for clues about what to expect in our future environments and what kind of plant cover might best help formerly useless "brownfields" heal themselves.

What the scientists have found rising from the cinder-ash-covered grounds are a variety of unique ecosystems. Every weed, shrub and tree had to find its way to the barren lot and survive in its compacted soil, which harbors an array of toxins ranging from coal dust to chromate.

Over the decades, the park interior developed into an urban mosaic of native and invasive plant species so rare it may not exist anywhere else in the world, said Rutgers-Newark ecologist Claus Holzapfel.

"As an ecologist, you can't go to Yellowstone all the time; you have to work in the real world, in places like this where pollution and raised carbon dioxide levels from traffic are a big factor in how the flora develops," said Holzapfel, a biological sciences professor.

Holzapfel and his team of graduate students have been analyzing the ways heavy metals are absorbed into the food chain, interactions between native and foreign plant species, and the various effects of pollution on the ecosystem.

Except for a few trees at the perimeter, most vegetation crept into the park after the historic Central Railroad of New Jersey Train Terminal closed its gates in 1967. Holzapfel said plant growth has been considerably slow due to harsh soil conditions.

"Since it's been 40 years, you would expect this to be a forest by now," Holzapfel said. "In a place in rural New Jersey, you would have very different results. This is how it would look after five or seven years."

Charles Hofer, a graduate student in the Rutgers department of Ecology and Evolution, found house wrens in Liberty State Park had five to six times the metal content in their feces as did house wrens in Somerset's Hutchinson Memorial Forest.

Though he has not observed any negative health effects in the birds, he said studies have shown heavy metal exposure can cause neurological damage, alter hormone production, reduce fertility and increase infant mortality.

Another key study area is the battle over space and soil nutrients between native and foreign species. Usually, invasive species are known for devastating local ecosystems, but any plant life is good plant life in places heavily impacted by industry, said Frank Gallagher, an administrator for the state Division of Parks and Forestry, who is managing the future development of Liberty State Park.

In the coming months, the park's interior will get a $32 million dollar makeover with the installation of hiking trails and an expansion of freshwater and saltwater marshes.

Gallagher said he wants to create an urban wildlife refuge for educational purposes, but he will leave upwards of 100 acres in its current state for future research.