Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.1
2.9
Journals
Atmosphere
Special Issues
Atmospheric Mercury Deposition in Estuarine Ecosystems and Coastal Lagoons: Contribution...
share announcement

Atmospheric Mercury Deposition in Estuarine Ecosystems and Coastal Lagoons: Contribution to The Global Hg Cycle

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosphere/Hydrosphere/Land–Atmosphere Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2021) | Viewed by 7107

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Rute Cesário

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto Superior Técnico, Centro de Química Estrutural, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Lisbon,1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: environmental chemistry; mercury biogeochemical cycle in aquatic environments; mercury toxicology; environmental pollution; marine biogeochemistry; mercury in polar environments

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Atmosphere dedicates this Special Issue to atmospheric mercury deposition in estuarine ecosystems and coastal lagoons: Contribution to the Hg global cycle. Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that bioaccumulates and persists in the environment. It can travel long distances within air masses and water currents, undergo methylation into its most concern organic form, monomethylmercury (MMHg; CH3Hg+), the more bioavailable and toxic form, and biomagnifies and drives most human health advisories and concerns for wildlife impacts. Additionally, Hg transport, transformations, bioaccumulation, and exposure are affected by numerous interacting processes and phenomena, such as climate change, nutrient loading, land use/cover, food web dynamics, and human behavior and decisions. Atmospheric speciation and deposition are important in the understanding of Hg as a global pollutant and especially to determine the capacity of the atmosphere to transport Hg over a long distance and its role in the Hg biogeochemical cycle in various environmental ecosystems. This Special Issue reinforces the need for improvement on the current understanding of the global cycling of Hg between major global reservoirs, mostly atmosphere and aquatic ecosystems.

The global Hg cycle is highly dependent on air/water exchange, as it is one of the primary pathways to deliver Hg to the atmosphere. It has become clear that atmosphere is a key component of the biogeochemical cycle of Hg, acting as a reservoir, transport mechanism, and facilitator of chemical reactions. As such, the atmosphere is the major transport pathway for the global distribution of Hg. The chemical and physical behavior of atmospheric Hg determines how, when, and where emitted Hg pollution impacts ecosystems. A part of the emissions entering the atmosphere is locally deposited to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Another part is transported with air masses in directions dependent on many factors, including wind direction and speed and Hg behavior during this transport. As a consequence, Hg emitted in one part of the world can be transported to another. However, the spatial distribution of Hg concentrations and deposition is quite uneven.

Knowledge on Hg releases into the atmosphere, atmospheric transport and deposition, and the linkage between environmental contamination and potential impacts to human health needs to be improved in particular ecosystems as estuaries and coastal lagoons. These types of aquatic environments are unique systems that offer a large number of goods and services. They are highly productive and include important fisheries and aquaculture exploitations, playing an important role in biogeochemical cycles, protecting and promoting the genetic diversity of the species that inhabit or use them as refuge or nursery. Although open water systems appear to be net sinks for Hg sequestration, nearshore wetland systems may be significant sources of Hg emission due to the biogenic release from plant leaves and the increased quantity and quality of dissolved organic carbon. Because estuarine environments are naturally and anthropogenically enriched in Hg, the evasion of Hg from contaminated wetlands, particularly estuaries, may be a critically important and currently underestimated flux of Hg to the atmosphere. With this Special Issue, we intend to answer an important question: How much atmospheric mercury could be deposited, retained and re-emitted to the atmosphere in estuaries and coastal lagoons during different seasons? The eventual deposition and retention of mercury in its various chemical forms in soils and waterbodies, its wide distribution and cycling in different ecosystems, mainly in aquatic ones, and the resultant risks to human and wildlife health constitute a major environmental management issue that should be considered in future actions by the decision makers.

In ligh of the above, we invite you to contribute articles to this Special Issue by reporting developed studies and new data about atmospheric mercury deposition in estuarine ecosystems and coastal lagoons. Solicited contributions include (but are not limited to): atmospheric mercury deposition, mercury fluxes between atmosphere/water, physical and chemical processes, transport and fate of mercury in atmosphere and aquatic environments (pristine and contaminated ones), and the impact of mercury/methylmercury environmental transformations to human health. Articles on chemical analysis and development of new methodologies to evaluate the bahavior of mercury species in several reservoirs, mostly in atmosphere and aquatic ecosytems, are also encouraged.

Dr. Rute Cesário
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Atmosphere as an important part of the global mercury biogeochemical cycle
  • Atmospheric mercury speciation and deposition
  • Mercury wet and dry depositions
  • Impact of climate changes in mercury species, processes, and fluxes
  • Mercury biogeochemistry in estuarine environments and coastal lagoons
  • Mercury fluxes between atmosphere/water/sediments

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 4445 KiB  
Article
Air Concentrations of Gaseous Elemental Mercury and Vegetation–Air Fluxes within Saltmarshes of the Tagus Estuary, Portugal
by Rute Cesário, Nelson J. O’Driscoll, Sara Justino, Claire E. Wilson, Carlos E. Monteiro, Henrique Zilhão and João Canário
Atmosphere 2021, 12(2), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12020228 - 7 Feb 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2337
Abstract
In situ air concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0)) and vegetation–atmosphere fluxes were quantified in both high (Cala Norte, CN) and low-to-moderate (Alcochete, ALC) Hg-contaminated saltmarsh areas of the Tagus estuary colonized by plant species Halimione portulacoides (Hp) and Sarcocornia fruticosa (Sf). Atmospheric [...] Read more.
In situ air concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0)) and vegetation–atmosphere fluxes were quantified in both high (Cala Norte, CN) and low-to-moderate (Alcochete, ALC) Hg-contaminated saltmarsh areas of the Tagus estuary colonized by plant species Halimione portulacoides (Hp) and Sarcocornia fruticosa (Sf). Atmospheric Hg(0) ranged between 1.08–18.15 ng m−3 in CN and 1.18–3.53 ng m−3 in ALC. In CN, most of the high Hg(0) levels occurred during nighttime, while the opposite was observed at ALC, suggesting that photoreduction was not driving the air Hg(0) concentrations at the contaminated site. Vegetation–air Hg(0) fluxes were low in ALC and ranged from −0.76 to 1.52 ng m−2 (leaf area) h−1 for Hp and from −0.40 to 1.28 ng m−2 (leaf area) h−1 for Sf. In CN, higher Hg fluxes were observed for both plants, ranging from −9.90 to 15.45 ng m−2 (leaf area) h−1 for Hp and from −8.93 to 12.58 ng m−2 (leaf area) h−1 for Sf. Mercury flux results at CN were considered less reliable due to large and fast variations in the ambient air concentrations of Hg(0), which may have been influenced by emissions from the nearby chlor-alkali plant, or historical contamination. Improved experimental setup, the influence of high local Hg concentrations and the seasonal activity of the plants must be considered when assessing vegetation–air Hg(0) fluxes in Hg-contaminated areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Mercury Deposition in Estuarine Ecosystems and Coastal Lagoons: Contribution to The Global Hg Cycle)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 2240 KiB  
Article
Spatial Distribution and Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Mercury Concentrations over a Contaminated Coastal Lagoon (Northern Adriatic, Italy)
by Federico Floreani, Nicolò Barago, Alessandro Acquavita, Stefano Covelli, Nicola Skert and Pablo Higueras
Atmosphere 2020, 11(12), 1280; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11121280 - 27 Nov 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1780
Abstract
The Marano and Grado Lagoon (Northern Adriatic Sea) has been affected by mercury (Hg) contamination coming from two sources, mining activity and discharges from a chlor-alkali plant (CAP). Sediments and water contamination have been previously well characterised, but little is known about the [...] Read more.
The Marano and Grado Lagoon (Northern Adriatic Sea) has been affected by mercury (Hg) contamination coming from two sources, mining activity and discharges from a chlor-alkali plant (CAP). Sediments and water contamination have been previously well characterised, but little is known about the atmospheric compartment, where Hg is easily emitted and can persist for a long time as gaseous elemental mercury (GEM). In this work, atmospheric GEM levels and its spatial distribution over the lagoon were monitored at several sites by means of both continuous discrete instrumental measurements over several months and the determination of Hg bioaccumulated in lichens (Xanthoria parietina L.). Average GEM levels varied from 1.80 ± 0.74 to 3.04 ± 0.66 ng m−3, whereas Hg in lichens ranged between 0.06 to 0.40 mg kg−1. In both cases, the highest values were found downwind of the CAP, but excluding this point, spatial patterns of Hg in the atmosphere and lichens reflected the concentration of this metal in the sediments of the lagoon, showing a decrease moving westward. These results could indicate that the lagoon acts as a secondary source of Hg into the atmosphere: future work is needed to characterise the quantity of releases and depositions at different environments inside the lagoon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Mercury Deposition in Estuarine Ecosystems and Coastal Lagoons: Contribution to The Global Hg Cycle)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 2575 KiB  
Article
Spatial and Temporal Trends of Gaseous Elemental Mercury over a Highly Impacted Coastal Environment (Northern Adriatic, Italy)
by Nicolò Barago, Federico Floreani, Alessandro Acquavita, José María Esbrí, Stefano Covelli and Pablo Higueras
Atmosphere 2020, 11(9), 935; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11090935 - 31 Aug 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2509
Abstract
Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant, being highly persistent in the atmosphere, in particular gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), which can easily be emitted and then transported over long distances. In the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea, Italy), contamination by Hg is well [...] Read more.
Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant, being highly persistent in the atmosphere, in particular gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), which can easily be emitted and then transported over long distances. In the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea, Italy), contamination by Hg is well characterised but little is known regarding the concentrations, sources and fate of GEM in the atmosphere. In this work, discrete measurements of GEM were recorded from several sites at different times of the year. The database is consistent with temporal night-day variations monitored using a continuous real-time device. The meteorological conditions were collected as ancillary parameters. GEM levels varied from <LOD (2.0 ng m−3) to 48.5 ng m−3 (mean 2.7 ng m−3), with no significant differences found among sites. A clear daily pattern emerged, with maximum values reached just after sunset. Air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction were identified as the main micrometeorological factors influencing both the spatial and temporal variation of GEM. Our results show that average atmospheric GEM values are higher than the natural background of the Northern Hemisphere and will be useful in future selection regarding the most suitable sites to monitor atmospheric Hg depositions and fluxes from soil and water. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Mercury Deposition in Estuarine Ecosystems and Coastal Lagoons: Contribution to The Global Hg Cycle)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop