Using foliar and forest floor mercury concentrations to assess spatial patterns of mercury deposition

Blackwell, Bradley D.; Driscoll, Charles T.

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2015.02.036

Cited by 48 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(69 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…and a series of papers list foliage concentrations of various tree species between 15 and 59 ng g À1 (St. Louis et al, 2001;Grigal et al, 2000;Rasmussen, 1991;Melieres et al, 2003;Gong et al, 2014;Blackwell and Driscoll, 2015). Combining with on our previous study in remote and suburb areas in China Zhou et al, 2013Zhou et al, , 2015b, it is interesting to find that litter or litterfall mercury concentrations were much higher than that in North America and Europe as presentation above.…”

Section: Mercury In Atmospherementioning

confidence: 66%

Mercury in terrestrial forested systems with highly elevated mercury deposition in southwestern China: The risk to insects and potential release from wildfires

Zhou

Wang

Sun

et al. 2016

Environmental Pollution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tForests are considered a pool of mercury in the global mercury cycle. However, few studies have investigated the distribution of mercury in the forested systems in China. Tieshanping forest catchment in southwest China was impacted by mercury emissions from industrial activities and coal combustions. Our work studied mercury content in atmosphere, soil, vegetation and insect with a view to estimating the potential for mercury release during forest fires. Results of the present study showed that total gaseous mercury (TGM) was highly elevated and the annual mean concentration was 3.51 ± 1.39 ng m À2 .Of the vegetation tissues, the mercury concentration follows the order of leaf/ needle > root > bark > branch > bole wood for each species. Total ecosystem mercury pool was 103.5 mg m À2 and about 99.4% of the mercury resides in soil layers (0e40 cm). The remaining 0.6% (0.50 mg m À2) of mercury was stored in biomass. The large mercury stocks in the forest ecosystem pose a serious threat for large pluses to the atmospheric mercury during potential wildfires and additional ecological stress to forest insect: dung beetles, cicada and longicorn, with mercury concentration of 1983 ± 446, 49 ± 38 and 7 ± 5 ng g À1 , respectively. Hence, the results obtained in the present study has implications for global estimates of mercury storage in forests, risks to forest insect and potential release to the atmosphere during wildfires.

show abstract

Section: Mercury In Atmospherementioning

confidence: 66%

Mercury in terrestrial forested systems with highly elevated mercury deposition in southwestern China: The risk to insects and potential release from wildfires

Zhou

Wang

Sun

et al. 2016

Environmental Pollution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[] showed that scavengeable atmospheric Hg increases with elevation in Nevada and California. Furthermore, multiple studies found increasing soil Hg concentration with elevation in montane forests and proposed that higher Hg(II) deposition via throughfall and cloudwater at higher elevation could contribute to the altitudinal Hg enrichment [ Zhang et al ., ; Blackwell and Driscoll , ; a]. It is possible that the elevation trend in our study is codetermined by the effects of precipitation and forest type.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Mercury isotope compositions across North American forests

Zheng

Obrist

Weis

et al. 2016

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

184

195

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forest biomass and soils represent some of the largest reservoirs of actively cycling mercury (Hg) on Earth, but many uncertainties exist regarding the source and fate of Hg in forest ecosystems. We systematically characterized stable isotope compositions of Hg in foliage, litter, and mineral soil horizons across 10 forest sites in the contiguous United States. The mass‐independent isotope signatures in all forest depth profiles are more consistent with those of atmospheric Hg(0) than those of atmospheric Hg(II), indicating that atmospheric Hg(0) is the larger source of Hg to forest ecosystems. Within litter horizons, we observed significant enrichment in Hg concentration and heavier isotopes along the depth, which we hypothesize to result from additional deposition of atmospheric Hg(0) during litter decomposition. Furthermore, Hg isotope signatures in mineral soils closely resemble those of the overlying litter horizons suggesting incorporation of Hg from litter as a key source of soil Hg. The spatial distribution of Hg isotope compositions in mineral soils across all sites is modeled by isotopic mixing assuming atmospheric Hg(II), atmospheric Hg(0), and geogenic Hg as major sources. This model shows that northern sites with higher precipitation tend to have higher atmospheric Hg(0) deposition than other sites, whereas drier sites in the western U.S. tend to have higher atmospheric Hg(II) deposition than the rest. We attribute these differences primarily to the higher litterfall Hg input at northern wetter sites due to increased plant productivity by precipitation. These results allow for a better understanding of Hg cycling across the atmosphere‐forest‐soil interface.

show abstract

“…Non-precipitation Hg wet deposition, e.g., cloud, fog, dew, and frost, could account for a notable proportion of the total wet deposition in montane, coastal, arid, and semi-arid areas Sheu and Lin, 2011;Stankwitz et al, 2012;Blackwell and Driscoll, 2015b). Quantifying Hg in cloud or fog helps better understand the impact of long-range transport and local sources on global Hg cycling .…”

Section: Measurements Of Hg Wet Deposition Through Cloud Fog Dew Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Non-precipitation Hg wet deposition simulation has never been considered in CTMs, but performed in some individual studies with Hg concentration data for cloud, fog, dew, or frost samples (Ritchie et al, 2006;Converse et al, 2014;Blackwell and Driscoll, 2015b). Non-precipitation deposition depth can be estimated using resistance models, analytical models, or sophisticated atmosphere-soil-vegetation models.…”

Section: Model For Non-precipitation Hg Wet Depositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the uncertainty of precipitation Hg deposition flux is low, the uncertainty of non-precipitation Hg deposition has been neglected. Due to the condensation effect, nonprecipitation deposition could contribute an equivalent or even larger proportion to Hg wet deposition than rainfall (Stankwitz et al, 2012;Blackwell and Driscoll, 2015b;Weiss-Penzias et al, 2016b;Gerson et al, 2017). Considering the global area of hotspot regions for cloud, fog, dew, and frost, such as alpine and coastal regions, the overall contribution of non-precipitation deposition to Hg wet deposition is approximately 5 %-10 %.…”

Section: Summary Of Uncertainties In Hg Deposition To Terrestrial Surmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Atmospheric mercury deposition over the land surfaces and the associated uncertainties in observations and simulations: a critical review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. One of the most important processes in the global mercury (Hg) biogeochemical cycling is the deposition of atmospheric Hg, including gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM), and particulate-bound mercury (PBM), to the land surfaces. Results of wet, dry, and forest Hg deposition from global observation networks, individual monitoring studies, and observation-based simulations have been reviewed in this study. Uncertainties in the observation and simulation of global speciated atmospheric Hg deposition to the land surfaces have been systemically estimated based on assessment of commonly used observation methods, campaign results for comparison of different methods, model evaluation with observation data, and sensitivity analysis for model parameterization. The uncertainties of GOM and PBM dry deposition measurements come from the interference of unwanted Hg forms or incomplete capture of targeted Hg forms, while that of GEM dry deposition observation originates from the lack of a standardized experimental system and operating procedure. The large biases in the measurements of GOM and PBM concentrations and the high sensitivities of key parameters in resistance models lead to high uncertainties in GOM and PBM dry deposition simulation. Non-precipitation Hg wet deposition could play a crucial role in alpine and coastal regions, and its high uncertainties in both observation and simulation affect the overall uncertainties of Hg wet deposition. The overall uncertainties in the observation and simulation of the total global Hg deposition were estimated to be ± (25–50) % and ± (45–70) %, respectively, with the largest contributions from dry deposition. According to the results from uncertainty analysis, future research needs were recommended, among which a global Hg dry deposition network, unified methods for GOM and PBM dry deposition measurements, quantitative methods for GOM speciation, campaigns for comprehensive forest Hg behavior, and more efforts in long-term Hg deposition monitoring in Asia are the top priorities.

show abstract

Using foliar and forest floor mercury concentrations to assess spatial patterns of mercury deposition

Cited by 48 publications

References 46 publications

Mercury in terrestrial forested systems with highly elevated mercury deposition in southwestern China: The risk to insects and potential release from wildfires

Mercury in terrestrial forested systems with highly elevated mercury deposition in southwestern China: The risk to insects and potential release from wildfires

Mercury isotope compositions across North American forests

Atmospheric mercury deposition over the land surfaces and the associated uncertainties in observations and simulations: a critical review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About