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
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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
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Identification of potential regional sources of atmospheric total gaseous mercury in Windsor, Ontario, Canada using hybrid receptor modeling
TL;DR: In this paper, a study was conducted to identify the potential regional sources of total gaseous mercury (TGM) and investigate the effects of regional sources and other factors on seasonal variability of TGM concentrations in Windsor.
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Underestimated Sink of Atmospheric Mercury in a Deglaciated Forest Chronosequence
TL;DR: Investigation of Hg fluxes contributed via litterfall and throughfall, Hg pool sizes in moss covers and woody biomass as well as their isotopic signatures in a glacier-to-forest succession ecosystem of the Southeast Tibetan Plateau concludes that woody vegetation, moss andThroughfall represent important Hg0 sinks in forest ecosystems.
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Sources of gaseous oxidized mercury and mercury dry deposition at two southeastern U.S. sites
TL;DR: In this paper, the potential sources of GOM during the Category 2 events at OLF were investigated using gridded frequency distributions (GFD) of 72-h atmospheric back trajectories.
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Atmospheric dry and wet deposition of mercury in Toronto
TL;DR: In this article, the dry and wet deposition rates of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), GEM, GOIM, and GOIM with particles having size less than 2.5μm were estimated.
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Atmospheric transport of speciated mercury across southern Lake Michigan: Influence from emission sources in the Chicago/Gary urban area
TL;DR: Results suggested that more than 50% of the maximum RGM concentrations observed in Holland during the selected periods could be attributed to direct transport of primary RGM emissions from Chicago/Gary.
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.
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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.
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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.