Ambient elemental, reactive gaseous, and particle-bound mercury concentrations in New Jersey, U.S.: measurements and associations with wind direction

Aucott, Michael; Caldarelli, Adriana; Zsolway, R.; Pietarinen, Charles; England, Randy

doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0583-0

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Effects of wind on ambient levels of speciated mercury had been demonstrated to mainly facilitate transport from upwind sources by examining the wind rose of mercury concentrations and backward trajectories of mercury rich air masses (e.g., Poissant et al, 2005;Gariel et al, 2005;Sigler et al, 2009a;Aucott et al, 2009) and to enhance mercury evasion (Gårdfeldt et al, 2003;Sigler et al, 2009b). Our study confirmed such effects of wind speed and direction on mercury.…”

Section: Windsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Some studies often found association between high concentrations of mercury and wind direction which points to upwind source regions (e.g., Gabriel et al, 2005;Poissant et al, 2005;Aucott et al, 2009;Sigler et al, 2009a;Baya and van Heyst, 2010), while others detected no correlation (Castillo et al, 2011). In addition, our previous study found a relationship between wind speed and possible oceanic evasion (Sigler et al, 2009b).…”

Section: H Mao Et Al: Speciated Mercury At Marine Coastal and Inlmentioning

confidence: 64%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Speciated mercury at marine, coastal, and inland sites in New England – Part 2: Relationships with atmospheric physical parameters

et al. 2012

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Abstract. Long-term continuous measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg 0 ), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and particulate phase mercury (Hg P ) were conducted at coastal (Thompson Farm, denoted as TF), marine (Appledore Island, denoted as AI), and elevated inland rural (Pac Monadnock, denoted as PM) monitoring sites of the AIRMAP Observing Network. Diurnal, seasonal, annual, and interannual variability in Hg 0 , RGM, and Hg P from the three distinctly different environments were characterized and compared in Part 1. Here in Part 2 relationships between speciated mercury (i.e., Hg 0 , RGM, and Hg P ) and climate variables (e.g., temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation, and precipitation) were examined. The best point-to-point correlations were found between Hg 0 and temperature in summer at TF and spring at PM, but there was no similar correlation at AI. Subsets of data demonstrated regional impacts of episodic dynamic processes such as strong cyclonic systems on ambient levels of Hg 0 at all three sites, possibly through enhanced oceanic evasion of Hg 0 . A tendency of higher levels of RGM and Hg P was identified in spring and summer under sunny conditions in all environments. Specifically, the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentile mixing ratios of RGM and Hg P increased with stronger solar radiation at both the coastal and marine sites. These metrics decreased with increasing wind speed at AI indicating enhanced loss of RGM and Hg P through deposition. RGM and Hg P levels correlated with temperature positively in spring, summer and fall at the coastal and marine locations. At the coastal site relationships between RGM and relative humidity suggested a clear decreasing tendency in all metrics from <40 % to 100 % relative humidity in all seasons especially in spring, compared to less variability in the marine environment. The effect of precipitation on RGM at coastal and marine locations was similar. At the coastal site, RGM levels were a factor of 3-4 to two orders of magnitude higher under dry conditions than rainy conditions in all seasons. In winter RGM mixing ratios appeared to be mostly above the limit of detection (LOD) during snowfalls suggesting less scavenging efficiency of snow. Mixing ratios of Hg P at the coastal and marine sites remained above the LOD under rainy conditions. Precipitation had negligible impact on the magnitude and pattern of diurnal variation of Hg P in all seasons in the marine environment.

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Section: Windsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: H Mao Et Al: Speciated Mercury At Marine Coastal and Inlmentioning

confidence: 64%

Speciated mercury at marine, coastal, and inland sites in New England – Part 2: Relationships with atmospheric physical parameters

et al. 2012

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“…Ambient TGM concentrations measured 4.3 m above the Secaucus High School Marsh ranged from 1.4 to 5.1 ng m −3 (Table 2). The average summertime concentration of TGM at the Secaucus site (2.5 ng m −3 ) was similar to that observed in Bayonne, New Jersey (2.2 ng m −3 ) 18 km to the south [ Goodrow et al , 2005] and Elizabeth, New Jersey (2.3 ng m −3 ) 23 km to the south–southwest [ Aucott et al , 2009]. Ambient TGM concentrations measured 3.2 m above the marsh surface at the Great Bay estuary site ranged from 2.3 to 3.4 ng m −3 (Table 3).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 55%

“…Atmospheric mercury exists primarily (up to 99%) in the gaseous elemental (Hg 0 ) form, [ Zillioux et al , 1993; Lin and Pehkonen , 1999; Aucott et al , 2009], but reactive gaseous mercury may be present at greater than 1% under certain conditions [ Sheu and Mason , 2001]. Although we did not measure gaseous mercury speciation in this study, elemental mercury represented more than 99.4% of the total gaseous mercury measured continuously over a two and a half year period (2004–2006) at an urban/industrial site in Elizabeth, New Jersey [ Aucott et al , 2009] 23 km to the south–southwest of the Secaucus site. Total gaseous mercury concentrations are therefore assumed to be dominated by elemental mercury and the vertical fluxes estimated using are assumed to be representative of gaseous elemental mercury.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mercury volatilization from salt marsh sediments

Smith

Reinfelder

2009

J. Geophys. Res.

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Estimated daytime sediment-air mercury volatilization fluxes at the Secaucus High School Marsh ranged from À375 to +677 ng m À2 h À1 and were positive (land to air flux) in 16 out of 20 measurement events. At the Great Bay estuary, mercury fluxes measured continuously over a 48-h period ranged from À34 to +81 ng m À2 h À1 and were positive during the day and negative at night. At both sites, mercury volatilization fluxes peaked at midday, and cumulative mercury fluxes exhibited strong positive correlations with cumulative solar radiation (r 2 = 0.97, p < 0.01) consistent with a light-driven mercury volatilization efficiency of about 15 ng Hg mol PAR À1 or about 0.06 ng Hg kJ À1 . No significant correlations were found between mercury fluxes and wind speed, air temperature, or tide height at either site. Thus despite a tenfold difference in sediment mercury concentration, photochemistry appears to be the dominant factor controlling mercury volatilization from these salt marsh sediments. The average mercury volatilization flux estimated for the Great Bay salt marsh in this study (17 ng m À2 h À1 ) compares well with other micrometeorological mercury fluxes for nonpoint source contaminated salt marsh and forest soils (8-18 ng m À2 h À1 ) and is more than 10 times higher than the average mercury emission flux from land ($1 ng m À2 h À1

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“…Wind data have been used to trace back the origin of high mercury concentrations. Some studies often found association between high concentrations of mercury and wind direction which points to upwind source regions (e.g., Gabriel et al, 2005;Poissant et al, 2005;Aucott et al, 2009;Sigler et al, 2009a;Baya and van Heyst, 2010), while others detected no correlation (Castillo et al, 2011). In addition, our previous study found a relationship between wind speed and possible oceanic evasion (Sigler et al, 2009b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Speciated mercury at marine, coastal, and inland sites in New England – Part 2: Relationships with atmospheric physical parameters

Mao¹,

Talbot²,

Hegarty³

et al. 2011

Preprint

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Abstract. Long-term continuous measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (Hgo), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and particulate phase mercury (Hgp) were conducted at coastal (Thompson Farm, denoted as TF), marine (Appledore Island, denoted as AI), and elevated inland (Pac Monadnock, denoted as PM) monitoring sites of the AIRMAP Observing Network. Diurnal, seasonal, annual, and interannual variability in Hgo, RGM, and Hgp from the three distinctly different environments were characterized and compared in Part 1. Here in Part 2 relationships between speciated mercury (i.e., Hgo, RGM, and Hgp) and climate variables (e.g., temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation, and precipitation) were examined. The best point-to-point correlations were found between Hgo and temperature in summer at TF and spring at PM, but there was no similar correlation at AI. Subsets of data demonstrated regional impacts of episodic dynamic processes such as strong cyclonic systems on ambient levels of Hgo at all three sites, possibly through enhanced oceanic evasion of Hgo. A tendency of higher levels of RGM and Hgp was identified in spring and summer under sunny conditions in all environments. Specifically, the 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentile mixing ratios of RGM and Hgp increased with stronger solar radiation at both the coastal and marine sites. These metrics decreased with increasing wind speed at AI indicating enhanced loss of RGM and Hgp through deposition. RGM and Hgp levels correlated with temperature positively in spring, summer and fall at the coastal and marine locations. In the coastal region relationships between RGM and relative humidity suggested a clear decreasing tendency in all metrics from <40% to 100% relative humidity in all seasons especially in spring, compared to less variability in the marine environment. The effect of precipitation on RGM at coastal and marine locations was similar. At the coastal site, RGM levels were a factor of 3–4 higher under dry conditions than rainy conditions in all seasons. In winter RGM mixing ratios appeared to be mostly above the limit of detection (LOD) during snowfalls suggesting less scavenging efficiency of snow. Mixing ratios of Hgp at the coastal and marine sites remained above the LOD under rainy conditions. Precipitation had negligible impact on the magnitude and pattern of diurnal variation of Hgp in all seasons in the marine environment.

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Ambient elemental, reactive gaseous, and particle-bound mercury concentrations in New Jersey, U.S.: measurements and associations with wind direction

Cited by 10 publications

References 15 publications

Speciated mercury at marine, coastal, and inland sites in New England – Part 2: Relationships with atmospheric physical parameters

Speciated mercury at marine, coastal, and inland sites in New England – Part 2: Relationships with atmospheric physical parameters

Mercury volatilization from salt marsh sediments

Speciated mercury at marine, coastal, and inland sites in New England – Part 2: Relationships with atmospheric physical parameters

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