TY - JOUR
T1 - A synthesis of rates and controls on elemental mercury evasion in the Great Lakes Basin
AU - Denkenberger, Joseph S.
AU - Driscoll, Charles T.
AU - Branfireun, Brian A.
AU - Eckley, Chris S.
AU - Cohen, Mark
AU - Selvendiran, Pranesh
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Marty Risch, David Gay, Tom Holsen and Kim Driscoll for their help with this analysis. We also appreciate the assistance of the reviewers, who provided constructive and helpful critiques, and whose comments have benefited the paper. Support for this study was provided by New York Energy Research and Development Authority and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Rates of surface-air elemental mercury (Hg 0) fluxes in the literature were synthesized for the Great Lakes Basin (GLB). For the majority of surfaces, fluxes were net positive (evasion). Digital land-cover data were combined with representative evasion rates and used to estimate annual Hg 0 evasion for the GLB (7.7 Mg/yr). This value is less than our estimate of total Hg deposition to the area (15.9 Mg/yr), suggesting the GLB is a net sink for atmospheric Hg. The greatest contributors to annual evasion for the basin are agricultural (∼55%) and forest (∼25%) land cover types, and the open water of the Great Lakes (∼15%). Areal evasion rates were similar across most land cover types (range: 7.0-21.0 μg/m 2-yr), with higher rates associated with urban (12.6 μg/m 2-yr) and agricultural (21.0 μg/m 2-yr) lands. Uncertainty in these estimates could be partially remedied through a unified methodological approach to estimating Hg 0 fluxes.
AB - Rates of surface-air elemental mercury (Hg 0) fluxes in the literature were synthesized for the Great Lakes Basin (GLB). For the majority of surfaces, fluxes were net positive (evasion). Digital land-cover data were combined with representative evasion rates and used to estimate annual Hg 0 evasion for the GLB (7.7 Mg/yr). This value is less than our estimate of total Hg deposition to the area (15.9 Mg/yr), suggesting the GLB is a net sink for atmospheric Hg. The greatest contributors to annual evasion for the basin are agricultural (∼55%) and forest (∼25%) land cover types, and the open water of the Great Lakes (∼15%). Areal evasion rates were similar across most land cover types (range: 7.0-21.0 μg/m 2-yr), with higher rates associated with urban (12.6 μg/m 2-yr) and agricultural (21.0 μg/m 2-yr) lands. Uncertainty in these estimates could be partially remedied through a unified methodological approach to estimating Hg 0 fluxes.
KW - Evasion
KW - Great Lakes
KW - Land cover
KW - Mercury
KW - Volatilization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80054954302&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=80054954302&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envpol.2011.06.007
DO - 10.1016/j.envpol.2011.06.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 21719170
AN - SCOPUS:80054954302
SN - 0269-7491
VL - 161
SP - 291
EP - 298
JO - Environmental Pollution
JF - Environmental Pollution
ER -