of wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment and lead researcher of the Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Physiological Ecology Lab at Virginia Tech, who oversaw the study. "We found strong masculinizing shifts in sex ratios caused by the interaction of two of the most common global changes on the planet, pollution and crop agriculture."

The team worked along the South River in Virginia, where large amounts of mercury persist in the river and floodplain due to leaks from a nearby manufacturing plant in the river from 1929 to 1959. Field experiments were replicated simultaneously in the laboratory using high-resolution temperature profiles to confirm results from the field.

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In the field, temperature probes placed in each nest recorded temperature at one-hour intervals throughout the incubation period, mid-May through September.about three months in the second half of the 2013-14 season.

But Letang said the neck injury he dealt with all of last season, a herniated disk that required surgery in April, was the most painful for him and the hardest to come back from.

"The stroke, it's like this, " Letang said, snapping his fingers. "It happens," Letang said. "You're in the hospital for three or four days trying to dissect what happened, what's wrong. It's scary. I'm not going to lie, it's scary. But for my career, the neck is more of an issue than the stroke. The stroke is more life, outside hockey, but for a career in hockey, the neck was scarier."

Letang said the surgery, which knocked him out for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Pittsburgh's