Recent advances in understanding and measurement of mercury in the environment: Terrestrial Hg cycling

Kevin Bishop; James B Shanley; Ami Riscassi; Heleen A de Wit; Karin Eklöf; Bo Meng; Carl Mitchell; Stefan Osterwalder; Paul F Schuster; Jackson Webster; Wei Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137647

Recent advances in understanding and measurement of mercury in the environment: Terrestrial Hg cycling

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jun 15:721:137647. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137647. Epub 2020 Mar 7.

Authors

Kevin Bishop¹, James B Shanley², Ami Riscassi³, Heleen A de Wit⁴, Karin Eklöf⁵, Bo Meng⁶, Carl Mitchell⁷, Stefan Osterwalder⁸, Paul F Schuster⁹, Jackson Webster¹⁰, Wei Zhu¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: [email protected].
² U.S. Geological Survey, Box 628, Montpelier, VT 05601, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4123, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalléen 21, NO-0349, Norway. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁸ Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble 18 INP, 38000 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁹ U.S. Geological Survey, 3215 Marine Street, Suite E-127, Boulder, CO 80303-1066, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁰ Department of Civil Engineering, California State University, 400 W. 1st Street, 21 95929-0930 Chico, CA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹¹ Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 90183 Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 32197286
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137647

Abstract

This review documents recent advances in terrestrial mercury cycling. Terrestrial mercury (Hg) research has matured in some areas, and is developing rapidly in others. We summarize the state of the science circa 2010 as a starting point, and then present the advances during the last decade in three areas: land use, sulfate deposition, and climate change. The advances are presented in the framework of three Hg "gateways" to the terrestrial environment: inputs from the atmosphere, uptake in food, and runoff with surface water. Among the most notable advances: These and other advances reported here are of value in evaluating the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention on reducing environmental Hg exposure to humans and wildlife.

Keywords: Climate; Food; Land-atmosphere exchange; Land-use; Methylmercury; Streamflow.