Mercury Fate and Transport in the Global Atmosphere

Mercury, primarily because of its existence and bioaccumulation as methylmercury in aquatic organisms, is a concern for the health of higher trophic level organisms, or to their consumers. This is the major factor driving current research in mercury globally and in environmental regulation, and is the driver for the current UNEP Global Partnership for Mercury Transport and Fate Research (UNEP F&T) initiative. The overall focus of the UNEP F&T report is to assess the relative importance of different processes/mechanisms affecting the transfer of mercury (Hg) from emission sources to aquatic and terrestrial receptors and provide possible source-receptor relationships. This transfer occurs through atmospheric transport, chemical transformations and subsequent deposition, and involves the intermittent recycling between reservoirs that occurs prior to ultimate removal of Hg from the atmosphere. Understanding the sources, the global Hg transport and fate, and the impact of human activity on the biosphere, requires improved knowledge of Hg movement and transformation in the atmosphere. An improved understanding of Hg emission sources, fate and transport is important if there is to be a focused and concerted effort to set priorities and goals for Hg emission management and reduction at the national, regional and global levels; and to develop and implement such policies and strategies. To achieve this, a series of coordinated scientific endeavors focused on the estimation of sources, measurement and validation of concentrations and processes, and modeling, coupled with interpretation of the results within a policy framework, is likely to be required.

Serves as the basis for negotiating an international protocol for mercury reduction A reference for international environmental policy makers

Auteur

Nicola Pirrone is Director of the Institute for Atmospheric Pollution of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IIA) and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Environmental and Health Sciences of the University of Michigan. He is Chair of the UNEP Global Partnership for Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research, Chair of the WG on Global Atmospheric Mercury Models Intercomparison within the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants (TF HTAP) of the UN-ECE-LRTAP convention and Chair of the CEN-TC264 WG that is preparing the European Standard Methods for monitoring mercury concentrations in ambient air and precipitations. He has been Chair of the European WG that prepared the "Air Quality Position Paper on Mercury" that is one of the scientific background documents of the Forth Air Quality Daughter Directive of the European Union. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on different topics associated to atmospheric transport, chemistry and policy relevant issues related to major at-mospheric pollutants.

Robert Mason is a Professor at the University of Connecticut with a joint appointment in the Departments of Marine Sciences and Chemistry. His research focus is the cycling of mercury in the biosphere with emphasis on the atmosphere and on air-sea exchange and redox reactions in the atmospheric boundary layer and the surface ocean. In addition, his research has a focus on mercury methylation in coastal ecosystems and other environments. Mason has an active research group with currently 4 PhD students and a post-doc. He is the author/coauthor of about 100 papers on mercury and is actively involved in a number of national and international mercury initiatives. Mason obtained his undergraduate and Master's degree in South Africa and his PhD at the University of Connecticut in 1991. He was a professor at the University of Maryland before returning to the University of Connecticut in 2005.

Texte du rabat

Mercury Fate and Transport in the Global Atmosphere highlights major issues related to the interactions of mercury with terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and evaluates the relative contribution of anthropogenic and natural sources to the global atmospheric mercury budget. This book provides a state-of-the-art overview on different aspects related to mercury emissions from natural and anthropogenic sources, the evaluation of mercury concentrations and fluxes in different regions of the world, and global atmospheric mercury models currently used to assess spatial distributions of mercury compounds in ambient air and source-receptor relationships. The preparation of this book has been made possible thanks to the contributions of all members of the United Nations Environment Programme Global Partnership for Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research (UNEP-MFTP), and of more than 70 scientists from leading universities and research institutions recognized as worldwide experts on different aspects related to emissions, monitoring and modeling mercury in the atmosphere and other environmental compartments. Mercury Fate and Transport in the Global Atmosphere is intended to provide a scientific support to nations and the UNEP Governing Council that have been asked to shape the most efficient and economic concerted actions to reduce the impact of mercury contamination on human health and the environment.

Contenu
Global Mercury Emissions to the Atmosphere from Natural and Anthropogenic Sources.- Mercury emissions from coal combustion in China.- Mercury emissions from industrial sources in China.- Mercury emissions from industrial sources in India and its effects in the environment.- Mercury emissions from point sources in South Africa.- World emissions of mercury from artisanal and small scale gold mining.- Mercury emissions from natural processes and their importance in the global mercury cycle.- Mercury emissions from global biomass burning: spatialand temporal distribution.- Spatial coverage and temporal trends of land-based atmospheric mercury measurements in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.- Spatial coverage and temporal trends of atmospheric mercury measurements in Polar Regions.- Spatial coverage and temporal trends of over-water, air-surface exchange, surface and deep sea water mercury measurements.- Monitoring and modeling projects for fate of Hg species in Japan.- The need for a coordinated global Hg monitoring network for global and regional models validation.- Our current understanding of major chemical and physical processes affecting mercury dynamics in the atmosphere and at the air-water/terrestrial interfaces.- Mercury chemical transformations in the gas, aqueous and heterogeneous phases: state-of-the-art science and uncertainties.- Importance of a global scale approach to using regional models in the assessment of source-receptor relationships for mercury.- Global mercury modelling at Environment Canada.- The Geos-Chem model.- The ECHMERT model.- The EMEP/MSC-E mercury modeling system.- The AER/EPRI global chemical transport model for mercury (CTM-HG).