Gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) is a globally distributed air toxin with a long atmospheric residence time. Any process that reduces its atmospheric lifetime increases its potential accumulation in the biosphere. Our data from Barrow, AK, at 71° N show that rapid, photochemically driven oxidation of boundary-layer Hg0 after polar sunrise, probably by reactive halogens, creates a rapidly depositing species of oxidized gaseous mercury in the remote Arctic troposphere at concentrations in excess of 900 pg m-3. This mercury accumulates in the snowpack during polar spring at an accelerated rate in a form that is bioavailable to bacteria and is released with snowmelt during the summer emergence of the Arctic ecosystem. Evidence suggests that this is a recent phenomenon that may be occurring throughout the earth's polar regions.
CITATION STYLE
Lindberg, S. E., Brooks, S., Lin, C. J., Scott, K. J., Landis, M. S., Stevens, R. K., … Richter, A. (2002). Dynamic oxidation of gaseous mercury in the arctic troposphere at polar sunrise. Environmental Science and Technology, 36(6), 1245–1256. https://doi.org/10.1021/es0111941
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