A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry
Environmental context. Mercury (Hg) occurs at high concentrations in Arctic marine wildlife, posing a possible health risk to northern peoples who use these animals for food. We find that although the dramatic Hg increases in Arctic Ocean animals since pre-industrial times can be explained by sustai...
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ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.516.7805 2023-05-15T14:48:13+02:00 A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry P. M. Outridge E R. W. Macdonald G F. Wang E G. A. Sternd A. P. Dastoorf The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives 2008 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.516.7805 en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.516.7805 Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. text 2008 ftciteseerx 2016-01-08T09:54:36Z Environmental context. Mercury (Hg) occurs at high concentrations in Arctic marine wildlife, posing a possible health risk to northern peoples who use these animals for food. We find that although the dramatic Hg increases in Arctic Ocean animals since pre-industrial times can be explained by sustained small annual inputs, recent rapid increases probably cannot because of the existing large oceanic Hg reservoir (the ‘flywheel’ effect). Climate change is a possible alternative force underpinning recent trends. Abstract. The present mercury (Hg) mass balance was developed to gain insights into the sources, sinks and processes regulating biological Hg trends in the Arctic Ocean. Annual total Hg inputs (mainly wet deposition, coastal erosion, seawater import, and ‘excess ’ deposition due to atmospheric Hg depletion events) are nearly in balance with outputs (mainly shelf sedimentation and seawater export), with a net 0.3 % year−1 increase in total mass. Marine biota represent a small fraction of the ocean’s existing total Hg and methyl-Hg (MeHg) inventories. The inertia associated with these large non-biological reservoirs means that ‘bottom-up ’ processes (control of bioavailable Hg concentrations by mass inputs or Hg speciation) are probably incapable of explaining recent biotic Hg trends, contrary to prevailing opinion. Instead, varying rates of bioaccumulation and trophic transfer from the abiotic MeHg reservoir may be key, and are susceptible to Text Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Unknown Arctic Arctic Ocean |
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English |
description |
Environmental context. Mercury (Hg) occurs at high concentrations in Arctic marine wildlife, posing a possible health risk to northern peoples who use these animals for food. We find that although the dramatic Hg increases in Arctic Ocean animals since pre-industrial times can be explained by sustained small annual inputs, recent rapid increases probably cannot because of the existing large oceanic Hg reservoir (the ‘flywheel’ effect). Climate change is a possible alternative force underpinning recent trends. Abstract. The present mercury (Hg) mass balance was developed to gain insights into the sources, sinks and processes regulating biological Hg trends in the Arctic Ocean. Annual total Hg inputs (mainly wet deposition, coastal erosion, seawater import, and ‘excess ’ deposition due to atmospheric Hg depletion events) are nearly in balance with outputs (mainly shelf sedimentation and seawater export), with a net 0.3 % year−1 increase in total mass. Marine biota represent a small fraction of the ocean’s existing total Hg and methyl-Hg (MeHg) inventories. The inertia associated with these large non-biological reservoirs means that ‘bottom-up ’ processes (control of bioavailable Hg concentrations by mass inputs or Hg speciation) are probably incapable of explaining recent biotic Hg trends, contrary to prevailing opinion. Instead, varying rates of bioaccumulation and trophic transfer from the abiotic MeHg reservoir may be key, and are susceptible to |
author2 |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
P. M. Outridge E R. W. Macdonald G F. Wang E G. A. Sternd A. P. Dastoorf |
spellingShingle |
P. M. Outridge E R. W. Macdonald G F. Wang E G. A. Sternd A. P. Dastoorf A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry |
author_facet |
P. M. Outridge E R. W. Macdonald G F. Wang E G. A. Sternd A. P. Dastoorf |
author_sort |
P. M. Outridge |
title |
A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry |
title_short |
A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry |
title_full |
A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry |
title_fullStr |
A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry |
title_full_unstemmed |
A mass balance inventory of mercury in the Arctic Ocean. Environmental Chemistry |
title_sort |
mass balance inventory of mercury in the arctic ocean. environmental chemistry |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.516.7805 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change |
op_relation |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.516.7805 |
op_rights |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
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1766319315270762496 |