Contribution of Volcanic and Fumarolic Emission to the Aerosol in Marine Atmosphere in the Central Mediterranean Sea: Results from Med-Oceanor 2017 Cruise Campaign

Moretti, Sacha; Salmatonidis, Apostolos; Querol, Xavier; Tassone, Antonella; Andreoli, Virginia; Bencardino, Mariantonia; Pirrone, Nicola; Sprovieri, Francesca; Naccarato, Attilio

doi:10.3390/atmos11020149

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Current methodologies, however, have a limited ability to monitor Hg on a truly global scale. Indeed, the use of active automated sampling systems based on sorbent traps with gold amalgamation, which are desorbed at relatively fine time resolution (3-5 min) for Hg quantification (Brown et al, 2010;Landis et al, 2002;Munthe et al, 2001;Steffen et al, 2012;Wängberg et al, 2001), may be limited by cost and the need for reliable electricity, consumables, and maintenance by well-trained operators (Huang et al, 2014;McLagan et al, 2016b;Pirrone et al, 2013). Given these constraints, passive sampling has been proposed as a viable alter-native or supplemental system to fill the gaps in worldwide Hg monitoring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air

et al. 2021

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Abstract. Passive air samplers (PASs), which provide time-averaged concentrations of gaseous mercury over the timescale of weeks to months, are promising for filling a gap in the monitoring of atmospheric mercury worldwide. Their usefulness will depend on their ease of use and robustness under field conditions, their availability and affordability, and most notably, their ability to provide results of acceptable precision and accuracy. Here we describe a comparative evaluation of three PASs with respect to their ability to precisely and accurately record atmospheric background mercury concentrations at sites in both southern Italy and southern Ontario, Canada. The study includes the CNR-PAS with gold nanoparticles as a sorbent, developed by the Italian National Research Council, the IVL-PAS using an activated carbon-coated disk, developed by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and the MerPAS® using a sulfur-impregnated activated carbon sorbent, developed at the University of Toronto and commercialized by Tekran. Detection limits are deduced from the variability in the amount of mercury quantified in more than 20 field blank samples for each PAS. Analytical and sampling precision is quantified through 22 triplicate deployments for each PAS, ranging in duration from 2 to 12 weeks. Accuracy and bias are assessed through comparison with gaseous elemental mercury concentrations recorded by Tekran 2537 automated mercury analyzers operating alongside the PASs at both locations. The performance of the PASs was significantly better in Italy, with all of them providing concentrations that are not significantly different from the average concentrations of the Tekran 2537 instruments. In Canada, where weather conditions were much harsher and more variable during the February through April deployment period, there are differences amongst the PASs. At both sites, the MerPAS® is currently the most sensitive, precise, and accurate among the three PASs. A key reason for this is the larger size and the radial configuration of the MerPAS®, which results in lower blank levels relative to the sequestered amounts of mercury when compared to the other two PASs, which rely on axial diffusion geometries. Since blank correction becomes relatively smaller with longer deployments, performance tends to be closer amongst the PASs during deployments of 8 and 12 weeks.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air

et al. 2021

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“…The accurate assessment of air pollutants has increasingly come into focus as the need to understand their transport and mechanisms of deposition to ecosystems grows (Dinoi et al, 2017;Moretti et al, 2020;Naccarato et al, 2018Naccarato et al, , 2020. Special attention is given to the atmosphere, because it is a well-recognized pathway for Hg distribution throughout various environmental compartments (Driscoll et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air

Naccarato¹,

Tassone²,

Martino³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Passive air samplers (PASs), providing time-averaged concentration of gaseous mercury over the time scale of weeks to months, are promising to fill a gap in the monitoring of atmospheric mercury worldwide. Their usefulness will depend on their ease-of-use and robustness under field conditions, their availability and affordability, and most notably, their ability to provide results of acceptable precision and accuracy. Here we describe a comparative evaluation of three PASs with respect to their ability to record precisely and accurately atmospheric background concentrations at sites in both southern Italy and southern Ontario. The study includes the CNR-PAS with gold nanoparticles as a sorbent, developed by the Italian National Research Council, the IVL-PAS using an activated carbon-coated disk, developed by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and the MerPAS® using a sulfur-impregnated activated carbon sorbent, developed at the University of Toronto and commercialized by Tekran. Detection limits are deduced from the variability in the amount of mercury quantified in more than 20 field blank samples for each PAS. Analytical and sampling precision is quantified through 22 triplicated deployments for each PAS ranging in length from two to twelve weeks. Accuracy and bias are assessed through comparison with gaseous elemental mercury concentrations recorded by Tekran 2537 automated mercury analyzers operating alongside the PASs at both locations. The performance of the PASs was significantly better in Italy, with all of them providing concentrations that are not statistically significantly different from the average of the active sampling results. In Canada, where weather conditions were much harsher and more variable during the February through April deployment period, differences were observed amongst PASs. At both sites, the MerPAS® is currently the most sensitive, precise and accurate among the three PASs. A key reason for this is the larger size and the radial configuration of the MerPAS®, which results in blank levels that are lower relative to the sequestered amounts of mercury than in the other two PASs, which rely on axial diffusion geometries. Because the blank-correction becomes relatively smaller with longer deployment, sampler performance tends to be better during deployments of 8 and 12 weeks.

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“…Indeed, Hg is continuously cycled and re-cycled as a consequence of natural and anthropogenic activities, which are responsible for its occurrence in the atmosphere, but also aqueous compartments and biota. Its reliable monitoring has been committing a part of the scientific community focused on the characterization of the ambient matrices and control of the pollutants which are potentially harmful to humans and the environment [2] , [3] , [4] . A comprehensive assessment of Hg risk involves not only a variety of analytical methods, which depend on the chemical species of mercury to be assayed and the type of matrix, but also involves the support of modeling studies, useful for an in-depth understanding of Hg fate and transport [5 , 6] .…”

Section: Methods Detailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modification of the EPA method 1631E for the quantification of total mercury in natural waters

et al. 2020

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To support the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention, the accurate determinations of mercury (Hg) in natural waters is an important but certainly challenging task due to the low concentrations expected in ambient samples. Mercury contamination may occur from many sources such as the unproperly-cleaning of storage bottles or the use of reagents for sample analysis with Hg traces, thus leading the analyst to easily run into errors. In our work, we propose some key modifications to the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) method 1631E aimed at reducing the Hg contamination of reagents, storage containers, and minimizing the carryover effect in the instrumental line of sampling. The changes introduced have been tailored for the use of the method with cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (CV-AFS) instrumentation and tested as part of a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) ring test. Although the edited method was tested with natural water samples, the proposed method improvements can also apply to the Hg analysis in solid matrices that require the prior acid digestion of the samples. A customized version of the EPA method 1631E is proposed for the analysis of aqueous samples. New protocols for the reduction of contamination in the storage bottles and reagents used for the preparation of BrCl solution are provided. A useful strategy for the control of the memory effect is included.

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Contribution of Volcanic and Fumarolic Emission to the Aerosol in Marine Atmosphere in the Central Mediterranean Sea: Results from Med-Oceanor 2017 Cruise Campaign

Cited by 11 publications

References 60 publications

A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air

A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air

A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air

Modification of the EPA method 1631E for the quantification of total mercury in natural waters

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