Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s
Atmospheric mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant, with wildfire emissions being an important source. There have been growing concerns on Hg contamination in the Arctic region, which is largely attributed to long-range transport from lower latitude regions. In this work, we estimate the c...
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ftmichigantuniv:oai:digitalcommons.mtu.edu:michigantech-p-1931 2023-05-15T14:36:54+02:00 Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s Kumar, Aditya Wu, Shiliang 2019-09-03T07:00:00Z https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/937 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01773 unknown Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/937 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01773 Michigan Tech Publications Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Geological Engineering Mining Engineering text 2019 ftmichigantuniv https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01773 2022-01-23T10:38:54Z Atmospheric mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant, with wildfire emissions being an important source. There have been growing concerns on Hg contamination in the Arctic region, which is largely attributed to long-range transport from lower latitude regions. In this work, we estimate the contributions of wildfire emissions from various source regions to Hg pollution in the Arctic (66° N to 90° N) using a newly developed global Hg wildfire emissions inventory and an atmospheric chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). Our results show that global wildfires contribute to about 10% (15 Mg year–1) of the total annual Hg deposition to the Arctic, with the most important source region being Eurasia, which contribute to 5.3% of the total annual Hg deposition followed by Africa (2.5%) and North America (1%). The substantial contributions from the Eurasia region are driven by the strong wildfire activity in the boreal forests. The total wildfire-induced Hg deposition to the Arctic amounts to about one-third of the deposition caused by present-day anthropogenic emissions. We also find that wildfires result in significant Hg deposition to the Arctic across all seasons (winter: 8.3%, spring: 7%, summer: 11%, and fall: 14.6%) with the largest deposition occurring during the boreal fire season. These findings indicate that wildfire is a significant source for Arctic Hg contamination and also demonstrate the importance of boreal forest in the global and regional Hg cycle through the mobilization of sequestered Hg reservoir. Text Arctic Michigan Technological University: Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech Arctic Environmental Science & Technology 53 19 11269 11275 |
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Michigan Technological University: Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech |
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Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Geological Engineering Mining Engineering |
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Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Geological Engineering Mining Engineering Kumar, Aditya Wu, Shiliang Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s |
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Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Geological Engineering Mining Engineering |
description |
Atmospheric mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant, with wildfire emissions being an important source. There have been growing concerns on Hg contamination in the Arctic region, which is largely attributed to long-range transport from lower latitude regions. In this work, we estimate the contributions of wildfire emissions from various source regions to Hg pollution in the Arctic (66° N to 90° N) using a newly developed global Hg wildfire emissions inventory and an atmospheric chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). Our results show that global wildfires contribute to about 10% (15 Mg year–1) of the total annual Hg deposition to the Arctic, with the most important source region being Eurasia, which contribute to 5.3% of the total annual Hg deposition followed by Africa (2.5%) and North America (1%). The substantial contributions from the Eurasia region are driven by the strong wildfire activity in the boreal forests. The total wildfire-induced Hg deposition to the Arctic amounts to about one-third of the deposition caused by present-day anthropogenic emissions. We also find that wildfires result in significant Hg deposition to the Arctic across all seasons (winter: 8.3%, spring: 7%, summer: 11%, and fall: 14.6%) with the largest deposition occurring during the boreal fire season. These findings indicate that wildfire is a significant source for Arctic Hg contamination and also demonstrate the importance of boreal forest in the global and regional Hg cycle through the mobilization of sequestered Hg reservoir. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kumar, Aditya Wu, Shiliang |
author_facet |
Kumar, Aditya Wu, Shiliang |
author_sort |
Kumar, Aditya |
title |
Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s |
title_short |
Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s |
title_full |
Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s |
title_fullStr |
Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mercury pollution in the Arctic from wildfires: Source attribution for the 2000s |
title_sort |
mercury pollution in the arctic from wildfires: source attribution for the 2000s |
publisher |
Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/937 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01773 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Michigan Tech Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/937 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01773 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01773 |
container_title |
Environmental Science & Technology |
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53 |
container_issue |
19 |
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11269 |
op_container_end_page |
11275 |
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