Mercury cycling in the Arctic – does enhanced deposition flux mean net-input?
Ralf EbinghausGKSS Research centre Geesthacht, Institute for Coastal Research, Max-Planck-Str. 1, D-21502 Geesthacht, Germany. Email: ralf.ebinghaus@gkss.de
Environmental Chemistry 5(2) 87-88 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN08024
Submitted: 20 March 2008 Accepted: 25 March 2008 Published: 17 April 2008
Environmental context. Mercury has unique physico-chemical characteristics that include long-range atmospheric transport, transformation into highly toxic methylmercury species, and the bioaccumulation of these compounds, especially in the marine environment. This has motivated intense international research on mercury as a pollutant of global concern. With respect to Polar regions, scientific interest and research activities were even accelerated after the discovery of the so-called atmospheric mercury depletion events (AMDEs), which are supposed to lead to enhanced mercury deposition flux into these pristine environments in the ecologically very sensitive period in polar spring.
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