Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges
In the Arctic, the snowpack forms the major interface between atmospheric and terrestrial cycling of mercury (Hg), a global pollutant. We investigated Hg dynamics in an interior Arctic tundra snowpack in northern Alaska during two winter seasons. Using a snow tower system to monitor Hg trace gas exc...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/219877 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 |
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ftunistlouisbrus:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:219877 2024-05-12T07:58:05+00:00 Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges Agnan, Yannick Douglas, Thomas A. Helmig, Detlev Hueber, Jacques Obrist, Daniel UCL - SST/ELI/ELIE - Environmental Sciences 2018 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/219877 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 eng eng Copernicus GmbH boreal:219877 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/219877 doi:10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 urn:EISSN:1994-0424 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess The Cryosphere, Vol. 12, no.6, p. 1939-1956 (2018) info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2018 ftunistlouisbrus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 2024-04-18T17:25:56Z In the Arctic, the snowpack forms the major interface between atmospheric and terrestrial cycling of mercury (Hg), a global pollutant. We investigated Hg dynamics in an interior Arctic tundra snowpack in northern Alaska during two winter seasons. Using a snow tower system to monitor Hg trace gas exchange, we observed consistent concentration declines of gaseous elemental Hg (Hg0gas) from the atmosphere to the snowpack to soils. The snowpack itself was unlikely a direct sink for atmospheric Hg0gas. In addition, there was no evidence of photochemical reduction of HgII to Hg0gas in the tundra snowpack, with the exception of short periods during late winter in the uppermost snow layer. The patterns in this interior Arctic snowpack thus differ substantially from observations in Arctic coastal and temperate snowpacks. We consistently measured low concentrations of both total and dissolved Hg in snowpack throughout the two seasons. Chemical tracers showed that Hg was mainly associated with local mineral dust and regional marine sea spray inputs. Mass balance calculations show that the snowpack represents a small reservoir of Hg, resulting in low inputs during snowmelt. Taken together, the results from this study suggest that interior Arctic snowpacks are negligible sources of Hg to the Arctic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic The Cryosphere Tundra Alaska DIAL@USL-B (Université Saint-Louis, Bruxelles) Arctic The Cryosphere 12 6 1939 1956 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DIAL@USL-B (Université Saint-Louis, Bruxelles) |
op_collection_id |
ftunistlouisbrus |
language |
English |
description |
In the Arctic, the snowpack forms the major interface between atmospheric and terrestrial cycling of mercury (Hg), a global pollutant. We investigated Hg dynamics in an interior Arctic tundra snowpack in northern Alaska during two winter seasons. Using a snow tower system to monitor Hg trace gas exchange, we observed consistent concentration declines of gaseous elemental Hg (Hg0gas) from the atmosphere to the snowpack to soils. The snowpack itself was unlikely a direct sink for atmospheric Hg0gas. In addition, there was no evidence of photochemical reduction of HgII to Hg0gas in the tundra snowpack, with the exception of short periods during late winter in the uppermost snow layer. The patterns in this interior Arctic snowpack thus differ substantially from observations in Arctic coastal and temperate snowpacks. We consistently measured low concentrations of both total and dissolved Hg in snowpack throughout the two seasons. Chemical tracers showed that Hg was mainly associated with local mineral dust and regional marine sea spray inputs. Mass balance calculations show that the snowpack represents a small reservoir of Hg, resulting in low inputs during snowmelt. Taken together, the results from this study suggest that interior Arctic snowpacks are negligible sources of Hg to the Arctic. |
author2 |
UCL - SST/ELI/ELIE - Environmental Sciences |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Agnan, Yannick Douglas, Thomas A. Helmig, Detlev Hueber, Jacques Obrist, Daniel |
spellingShingle |
Agnan, Yannick Douglas, Thomas A. Helmig, Detlev Hueber, Jacques Obrist, Daniel Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
author_facet |
Agnan, Yannick Douglas, Thomas A. Helmig, Detlev Hueber, Jacques Obrist, Daniel |
author_sort |
Agnan, Yannick |
title |
Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
title_short |
Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
title_full |
Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
title_fullStr |
Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mercury in the Arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
title_sort |
mercury in the arctic tundra snowpack: temporal and spatial concentration patterns and trace gas exchanges |
publisher |
Copernicus GmbH |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/219877 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic The Cryosphere Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic The Cryosphere Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol. 12, no.6, p. 1939-1956 (2018) |
op_relation |
boreal:219877 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/219877 doi:10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 urn:EISSN:1994-0424 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1939-2018 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
1939 |
op_container_end_page |
1956 |
_version_ |
1798838428637331456 |