Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf
High biota mercury levels are persisting in the Arctic, threatening ecosystem and human health. The Arctic Ocean receives large pulsed mercury inputs from rivers and the atmosphere. Yet the fate of those inputs and possible seasonal variability of mercury in the Arctic Ocean remain uncertain. Until...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065256 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 |
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ftnorskinstvf:oai:niva.brage.unit.no:11250/3065256 2023-06-11T04:08:11+02:00 Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf Kohler, Stephen Gustav Heimbürger-Boavida, Lars-Eric Petrova, Mariia V. Digernes, Maria Guadalupe Sanchez, Nicolas Dufour, Aurelie Simic, Anica Ndungu, Kuria Ardelan, Murat Van 2022 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065256 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 eng eng Norges forskningsråd: 276730 Nature Geoscience. 2022, 15, 621-626. urn:issn:1752-0894 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065256 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 cristin:2038772 621-626 15 Nature Geoscience Peer reviewed Journal article 2022 ftnorskinstvf https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 2023-05-03T22:45:31Z High biota mercury levels are persisting in the Arctic, threatening ecosystem and human health. The Arctic Ocean receives large pulsed mercury inputs from rivers and the atmosphere. Yet the fate of those inputs and possible seasonal variability of mercury in the Arctic Ocean remain uncertain. Until now, seawater observations were possible only during summer and fall. Here we report polar night mercury seawater observations on a gradient from the shelf into the Arctic Ocean. We observed lower and less variable total mercury concentrations during the polar night (winter, 0.46 ± 0.07 pmol l−1) compared with summer (0.63 ± 0.19 pmol l−1) and no substantial changes in methylmercury concentrations (summer, 0.11 ± 0.03 pmol l−1 and winter, 0.12 ± 0.04 pmol l−1). Seasonal changes were estimated by calculating the difference in the integrated mercury pools. We estimate losses of inorganic mercury of 208 ± 41 pmol m−2 d−1 on the shelf driven by seasonal particle scavenging. Persistent methylmercury concentrations (−1 ± 16 pmol m−2 d−1) are probably driven by a lower affinity for particles and the presence of gaseous species. Our results update the current understanding of Arctic mercury cycling and require budgets and models to be reevaluated with a seasonal aspect. acceptedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Human health polar night Norwegian Institute for Water research: NIVA Open Access Archive (Brage) Arctic Arctic Ocean Nature Geoscience 15 8 621 626 |
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Norwegian Institute for Water research: NIVA Open Access Archive (Brage) |
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ftnorskinstvf |
language |
English |
description |
High biota mercury levels are persisting in the Arctic, threatening ecosystem and human health. The Arctic Ocean receives large pulsed mercury inputs from rivers and the atmosphere. Yet the fate of those inputs and possible seasonal variability of mercury in the Arctic Ocean remain uncertain. Until now, seawater observations were possible only during summer and fall. Here we report polar night mercury seawater observations on a gradient from the shelf into the Arctic Ocean. We observed lower and less variable total mercury concentrations during the polar night (winter, 0.46 ± 0.07 pmol l−1) compared with summer (0.63 ± 0.19 pmol l−1) and no substantial changes in methylmercury concentrations (summer, 0.11 ± 0.03 pmol l−1 and winter, 0.12 ± 0.04 pmol l−1). Seasonal changes were estimated by calculating the difference in the integrated mercury pools. We estimate losses of inorganic mercury of 208 ± 41 pmol m−2 d−1 on the shelf driven by seasonal particle scavenging. Persistent methylmercury concentrations (−1 ± 16 pmol m−2 d−1) are probably driven by a lower affinity for particles and the presence of gaseous species. Our results update the current understanding of Arctic mercury cycling and require budgets and models to be reevaluated with a seasonal aspect. acceptedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kohler, Stephen Gustav Heimbürger-Boavida, Lars-Eric Petrova, Mariia V. Digernes, Maria Guadalupe Sanchez, Nicolas Dufour, Aurelie Simic, Anica Ndungu, Kuria Ardelan, Murat Van |
spellingShingle |
Kohler, Stephen Gustav Heimbürger-Boavida, Lars-Eric Petrova, Mariia V. Digernes, Maria Guadalupe Sanchez, Nicolas Dufour, Aurelie Simic, Anica Ndungu, Kuria Ardelan, Murat Van Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
author_facet |
Kohler, Stephen Gustav Heimbürger-Boavida, Lars-Eric Petrova, Mariia V. Digernes, Maria Guadalupe Sanchez, Nicolas Dufour, Aurelie Simic, Anica Ndungu, Kuria Ardelan, Murat Van |
author_sort |
Kohler, Stephen Gustav |
title |
Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
title_short |
Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
title_full |
Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
title_fullStr |
Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
title_sort |
arctic ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065256 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Human health polar night |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Human health polar night |
op_source |
621-626 15 Nature Geoscience |
op_relation |
Norges forskningsråd: 276730 Nature Geoscience. 2022, 15, 621-626. urn:issn:1752-0894 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065256 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 cristin:2038772 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
621 |
op_container_end_page |
626 |
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1768381324255559680 |