Five hundred years of anthropogenic mercury: spatial and temporal release profiles
Abstract
When released to the biosphere, mercury (Hg) is very mobile and can take millennia to be returned to a secure, long-term repository. Understanding where and when Hg was released as a result of human activities allows better quantification of present-day reemissions and future trajectories of environmental concentrations. In this work, we estimate the time-varying releases of Hg in seven world regions over the 500 year period, 1510–2010. By our estimation, this comprises 95% of all-time anthropogenic releases. Globally, 1.47 Tg of Hg were released in this period, 23% directly to the atmosphere and 77% to land and water bodies. Cumulative releases have been largest in Europe (427 Gg) and North America (413 Gg). In some world regions (Africa/Middle East and Oceania), almost all (>99%) of the Hg is relatively recent (emitted since 1850), whereas in South America it is mostly of older vintage (63% emitted before 1850). Asia was the greatest-emitting region in 2010, while releases in Europe and North America have declined since the 1970s, as recognition of the risks posed by Hg have led to its phase-out in commercial usage. The continued use of Hg in artisanal and small-scale gold mining means that the Africa/Middle East region ismore »
- Authors:
-
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA (United States); Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1546609
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 14; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1748-9326
- Publisher:
- IOP Publishing
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; global budget; historical releases; mercury; regional pollution
Citation Formats
Streets, David G., Horowitz, Hannah M., Lu, Zifeng, Levin, Leonard, Thackray, Colin P., and Sunderland, Elsie M. Five hundred years of anthropogenic mercury: spatial and temporal release profiles. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab281f.
Streets, David G., Horowitz, Hannah M., Lu, Zifeng, Levin, Leonard, Thackray, Colin P., & Sunderland, Elsie M. Five hundred years of anthropogenic mercury: spatial and temporal release profiles. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab281f
Streets, David G., Horowitz, Hannah M., Lu, Zifeng, Levin, Leonard, Thackray, Colin P., and Sunderland, Elsie M. Mon .
"Five hundred years of anthropogenic mercury: spatial and temporal release profiles". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab281f. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1546609.
@article{osti_1546609,
title = {Five hundred years of anthropogenic mercury: spatial and temporal release profiles},
author = {Streets, David G. and Horowitz, Hannah M. and Lu, Zifeng and Levin, Leonard and Thackray, Colin P. and Sunderland, Elsie M.},
abstractNote = {When released to the biosphere, mercury (Hg) is very mobile and can take millennia to be returned to a secure, long-term repository. Understanding where and when Hg was released as a result of human activities allows better quantification of present-day reemissions and future trajectories of environmental concentrations. In this work, we estimate the time-varying releases of Hg in seven world regions over the 500 year period, 1510–2010. By our estimation, this comprises 95% of all-time anthropogenic releases. Globally, 1.47 Tg of Hg were released in this period, 23% directly to the atmosphere and 77% to land and water bodies. Cumulative releases have been largest in Europe (427 Gg) and North America (413 Gg). In some world regions (Africa/Middle East and Oceania), almost all (>99%) of the Hg is relatively recent (emitted since 1850), whereas in South America it is mostly of older vintage (63% emitted before 1850). Asia was the greatest-emitting region in 2010, while releases in Europe and North America have declined since the 1970s, as recognition of the risks posed by Hg have led to its phase-out in commercial usage. The continued use of Hg in artisanal and small-scale gold mining means that the Africa/Middle East region is now a crucial contributor. We estimate that 72% of cumulative Hg emissions to air has been in the form of elemental mercury (Hg0), which has a long lifetime in the atmosphere and can therefore be transported long distances. Our results show that 83% of the total Hg has been released to local water bodies, onto land, or quickly deposited from the air in divalent (HgII) form. Regionally, this value ranges from 77% in Africa/Middle East and Oceania to 89% in South America. Results from global biogeochemical modeling indicate improved agreement of the refined emission estimates in this report with archival records of Hg accumulation in estuarine and deep ocean sediment.},
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ab281f},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
number = 8,
volume = 14,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Mon Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Web of Science
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