Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory
Mercury is a chemical with widespread anthropogenic emissions that is known to be highly toxic to humans, ecosystems and wildlife. Global anthropogenic emissions are around 20 % higher than natural emissions and the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere has increased since the industrial re...
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ftleicester:oai:lra.le.ac.uk:2381/41253 2023-05-15T17:35:06+02:00 Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory Read, Katie A. Neves, Luis M. Carpenter, Lucy J. Lewis, Alastair C. Fleming, Zoe L. Kentisbeer, John 2018-02-27T11:13:11Z https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/5393/2017/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/41253 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5393-2017 en eng European Geosciences Union (EGU) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2017, 17 (8), pp. 5393-5406 1680-7316 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/5393/2017/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/41253 doi:10.5194/acp-17-5393-2017 1680-7324 Copyright © the authors, 2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Journal Article 2018 ftleicester https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5393-2017 2019-03-22T20:24:09Z Mercury is a chemical with widespread anthropogenic emissions that is known to be highly toxic to humans, ecosystems and wildlife. Global anthropogenic emissions are around 20 % higher than natural emissions and the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere has increased since the industrial revolution. In 2005 the European Union and the United States adopted measures to reduce mercury use, in part to offset the impacts of increasing emissions in industrialising countries. The changing regional emissions of mercury have impacts on a range of spatial scales. Here we report 4 years (December 2011–December 2015) of total gaseous mercury (TGM) measurements at the Cape Verde Observatory (CVO), a global WMO-GAW station located in the subtropical remote marine boundary layer. Observed total gaseous mercury concentrations were between 1.03 and 1.33 ng m−3 (10th, 90th percentiles), close to expectations based on previous interhemispheric gradient measurements. We observe a decreasing trend in TGM (−0.05 ± 0.04 ng m−3 yr−1, −4.2 % ± 3.3 % yr−1) over the 4 years consistent with the reported decrease of mercury concentrations in North Atlantic surface waters and reductions in anthropogenic emissions. The decrease was more visible in the summer (July–September) than in the winter (December–February), when measurements were impacted by air from the African continent and Sahara/Sahel regions. African air masses were also associated with the highest and most variable TGM concentrations. We suggest that the less pronounced downward trend inclination in African air may be attributed to poorly controlled anthropogenic sources such as artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in West Africa. Peer-reviewed Publisher Version Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of Leicester: Leicester Research Archive (LRA) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 17 8 5393 5406 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Leicester: Leicester Research Archive (LRA) |
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ftleicester |
language |
English |
description |
Mercury is a chemical with widespread anthropogenic emissions that is known to be highly toxic to humans, ecosystems and wildlife. Global anthropogenic emissions are around 20 % higher than natural emissions and the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere has increased since the industrial revolution. In 2005 the European Union and the United States adopted measures to reduce mercury use, in part to offset the impacts of increasing emissions in industrialising countries. The changing regional emissions of mercury have impacts on a range of spatial scales. Here we report 4 years (December 2011–December 2015) of total gaseous mercury (TGM) measurements at the Cape Verde Observatory (CVO), a global WMO-GAW station located in the subtropical remote marine boundary layer. Observed total gaseous mercury concentrations were between 1.03 and 1.33 ng m−3 (10th, 90th percentiles), close to expectations based on previous interhemispheric gradient measurements. We observe a decreasing trend in TGM (−0.05 ± 0.04 ng m−3 yr−1, −4.2 % ± 3.3 % yr−1) over the 4 years consistent with the reported decrease of mercury concentrations in North Atlantic surface waters and reductions in anthropogenic emissions. The decrease was more visible in the summer (July–September) than in the winter (December–February), when measurements were impacted by air from the African continent and Sahara/Sahel regions. African air masses were also associated with the highest and most variable TGM concentrations. We suggest that the less pronounced downward trend inclination in African air may be attributed to poorly controlled anthropogenic sources such as artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in West Africa. Peer-reviewed Publisher Version |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Read, Katie A. Neves, Luis M. Carpenter, Lucy J. Lewis, Alastair C. Fleming, Zoe L. Kentisbeer, John |
spellingShingle |
Read, Katie A. Neves, Luis M. Carpenter, Lucy J. Lewis, Alastair C. Fleming, Zoe L. Kentisbeer, John Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory |
author_facet |
Read, Katie A. Neves, Luis M. Carpenter, Lucy J. Lewis, Alastair C. Fleming, Zoe L. Kentisbeer, John |
author_sort |
Read, Katie A. |
title |
Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory |
title_short |
Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory |
title_full |
Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory |
title_fullStr |
Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory |
title_full_unstemmed |
Four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory |
title_sort |
four years (2011-2015) of total gaseous mercury measurements from the cape verde atmospheric observatory |
publisher |
European Geosciences Union (EGU) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/5393/2017/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/41253 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5393-2017 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2017, 17 (8), pp. 5393-5406 1680-7316 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/5393/2017/ http://hdl.handle.net/2381/41253 doi:10.5194/acp-17-5393-2017 1680-7324 |
op_rights |
Copyright © the authors, 2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5393-2017 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
5393 |
op_container_end_page |
5406 |
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1766134145820393472 |