Arctic mercury cycling

Abstract

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Mercury isotope evidence for Arctic summertime re-emission of mercury from the cryosphere

“…Anthropogenic Hg emissions to the atmosphere are estimated to be around 2500 Mg y −1 4 , exceeding natural Hg emissions of 340 Mg y −1 by sevenfold 5 . Gaseous elemental Hg 0 emissions disperse globally, due to the relatively long atmospheric Hg 0 lifetime (~5 months 6 ), and can reach the Arctic by long-range atmospheric transport 7 . Deposition of atmospheric Hg to Arctic marine ecosystems, microbial conversion to methylmercury 8 , 9 and subsequent biomagnification along marine food webs expose indigenous populations to Hg through their traditional diet of high trophic level seafood 10 .…”

Policy options to account for multiple chemical pollutants threatening biodiversity

“…Mercury's potential to significantly disrupt human and ecosystem health is well established for the past few decades, which has ultimately led to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (37). In brief, mercury is a highly toxic, non-degradable and mobile contaminant (some of its species can be transported in the atmosphere over very long distances) and its cycling in marine, freshwater and Arctic systems is well established (38)(39)(40). Elemental mercury is methylated by microorganisms, forming methylmercury as the most toxic form, which bioaccumulates and biomagnifies in the food web (33).…”

Investigating the dynamics of methylmercury bioaccumulation in the Beaufort Sea shelf food web: a modeling perspective

“…3 Mercury enters the Arctic Ocean through a number of different pathways, including river discharge, atmospheric deposition, snow and ice melt, and coastal erosion (ranked from the most important to the least important, though there remains substantial uncertainty). [4][5][6] Although remote and far away from major anthropogenic sources, the Arctic has been impacted by global anthropogenic emissions of Hg due to long-range transport and global distillation. 7,8 Previous studies estimated that 70 to 95% of the present-day Hg in Arctic marine mammals comes from anthropogenic emissions.…”