Journal ArticleDOI
A Synthesis of Progress and Uncertainties in Attributing the Sources of Mercury in Deposition
Steve E. Lindberg,Russell Bullock,Ralf Ebinghaus,Daniel R. Engstrom,Xinbin Feng,William F. Fitzgerald,Nicola Pirrone,Eric M. Prestbo,Christian Seigneur +8 more
TLDR
It is agreed that the uncertainty is strongly dependent upon scale and that the question as stated is answerable with greater confidence both very near and very far from major point sources, assuming that the “global pool” is a recognizable “source.”Abstract:
A panel of international experts was convened in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2005, as part of the 8th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant. Our charge was to address the state of science pertinent to source attribution, specifically our key question was: "For a given location, can we ascertain with confidence the relative contributions of local, regional, and global sources, and of natural versus anthropogenic emissions to mercury deposition?" The panel synthesized new research pertinent to this question published over the past decade, with emphasis on four major research topics: long-term anthropogenic change, current emission and deposition trends, chemical transformations and cycling, and modeling and uncertainty. Within each topic, the panel drew a series of conclusions, which are presented in this paper. These conclusions led us to concur that the answer to our question is a "qualified yes," with the qualification being dependent upon the level of uncertainty one is willing to accept. We agreed that the uncertainty is strongly dependent upon scale and that our question as stated is answerable with greater confidence both very near and very far from major point sources, assuming that the "global pool" is a recognizable "source." Many regions of interest from an ecosystem-exposure standpoint lie in between, where source attribution carries the greatest degree of uncertainty.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Mercury stable isotope fractionation in six utility boilers of two large coal-fired power plants
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the fractionation between feed coal and coal combustion products in six utility boilers of two large power plants in Huainan City, Anhui Province, China.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mercury stable isotopes in sediments and largemouth bass from Florida lakes, USA
Laura S. Sherman,Joel D. Blum +1 more
TL;DR: It is found that fish collected from lakes located near the large Crystal River coal-fired power plant did not display evidence of anomalous negative δ(202)Hg values that were observed in nearby precipitation, and decreased atmospheric Hg deposition may not lead to immediate short-term reductions in fish MeHg concentrations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Distribution and air-sea exchange of mercury (Hg) in the Yellow Sea
TL;DR: In this paper, a cruise covering the Yellow Sea in July 2010, gaseous elemental mercury (GEM or Hg(0)) in the atmosphere, total Hg (THg), reactive hg (RHg) and dissolved Gaseous mercury (DGM, largely Hg) in the waters were measured aboard the R/V Kexue III and the mean (+/- SD) concentration of GEM over the entire cruise was 2.61 +/- 0.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global observations and modeling of atmosphere–surface exchange of elemental mercury: a critical review
TL;DR: In this paper, the air-surface fluxes of elemental Hg vapor (Hg-0) are quantified for understanding mercury global biogeochemical cycles, and a method for quantifying air surface fluxes is proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Socioeconomic drivers of mercury emissions in China from 1992 to 2007.
TL;DR: Results show that changes in per capita GDP and GDP composition led to increased emissions which offset the reduction of emissions made possible by technology-induced decrease of mercury emissions intensity and changes in final demand mix.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The biogeochemical cycling of elemental mercury: Anthropogenic influences☆
TL;DR: A review of the available information on global Hg cycling shows that the atmosphere and surface ocean are in rapid equilibrium; the evasion of Hg0 from the oceans is balanced by the total oceanic deposition of hg(II) from the atmosphere as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Case for Atmospheric Mercury Contamination in Remote Areas
TL;DR: A review of the weaknesses in interpretation and the choice of information that has been used to argue against atmospheric Hg contamination can be found in this paper, where the authors examine the weaknesses of the information used to support the prevailing scientific view that natural geologic sources are the principal contributors of Hg.
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Global anthropogenic mercury emission inventory for 2000
TL;DR: Wilson et al. as mentioned in this paper presented a new inventory of global emissions of mercury to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources for the year 2000, showing that the largest emissions of Hg to the global atmosphere occur from combustion of fossil fuels, mainly coal in utility, industrial, and residential boilers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Arctic springtime depletion of mercury
W.H. Schroeder,Kurt G. Anlauf,Leonard A. Barrie,J. Y. Lu,Alexandra Steffen,D. Schneeberger,Torunn Berg +6 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that during the spring (April to early June) of 1995, there were frequent episodic depletions in mercury vapour concentrations in Arctic surface air.