Assessing contributions of natural surface and anthropogenic emissions to atmospheric mercury in a fast-developing region of eastern China from 2015 to 2018
<p>Mercury (Hg) is a global toxic pollutant that can be released into the atmosphere through anthropogenic and natural sources. The uncertainties in the estimated emission amounts are much larger from natural than anthropogenic sources. A method was developed in the present study to quantify t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-09-01
|
| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/20/10985/2020/acp-20-10985-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Mercury (Hg) is a global toxic pollutant that can be released into the
atmosphere through anthropogenic and natural sources. The uncertainties in
the estimated emission amounts are much larger from natural than
anthropogenic sources. A method was developed in the present study to
quantify the contributions of natural surface mercury emissions to ambient
gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) concentrations through application of
positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis with temperature and <span class="inline-formula">NH<sub>3</sub></span>
as indicators of GEM emissions from natural surfaces. GEM concentrations
were continuously monitored at a 2-hourly resolution at a regional
background site in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China during
2015–2018. Annual average GEM concentrations were in the range of 2.03–3.01 ng m<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−3</sup></span>, with a strong decreasing trend at a rate of <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.32</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.07</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="64pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="83d53eed5ffb72fa63f3c41f13c423fe"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-20-10985-2020-ie00001.svg" width="64pt" height="10pt" src="acp-20-10985-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> ng m<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−3</sup></span> yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span> from 2015 to 2018, which was mostly caused by reduced
anthropogenic emissions since 2013. The estimated contributions from natural
surface emissions of mercury to the ambient GEM concentrations were in the
range of 1.00–1.13 ng m<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−3</sup></span> on annual average, with insignificant
interannual changes, but the relative contribution increased significantly
from 41 % in 2015 to 57 % in 2018, gradually surpassing those from
anthropogenic sources.</p> |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |