Global Cycling of Mercury in Oceans

My ongoing research is developing a global simulation for inorganic Hg and methyl Hg in the oceans that is integrated with the GEOS-Chem global atmospheric chemistry transport model and the Global Terrestrial Mercury Model (GTMM) developed by Nicole Smith-Downey.  The physical framework draws from the multi-compartment box model for Hg developed by Sunderland and Mason (2007) and the slab-ocean simulation developed by Strode et al. (2007) [pdf].

We recently used a combination of field and modeling data on total and methylmercury concentrations in the North Pacific ocean to better understand and anticipate mercury concentration trends in marine fish.  Read the Nature News story on this research here.  Our research is also investigating the effects of future climate and emissions changes on methylmercury levels in ocean ecosystems.

Elsie Sunderland, Daniel Jacob, Chris Holmes, Bess Sturges-Corbitt, Harvard University;

Collaborators:

Nicole Smith-Downey, U Texas; Anne Laerke Soerensen, Univesity of Aarhus, Denmark, David Krabbenhoft, USGS; William Landing, FSU; Robert Mason, University of Connecticut.

References:

Anthropogenic impacts on global storage and emission of mercury from terrestrial soils: Insights from a new global model. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, submitted August 2009. [pdf].

Mercury sources, distribution and bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean: Insights from data and models.  Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 2009. Vol. 23, GB2010. doi:10.1029/2008GB003425. [pdf].

Land-ocean-atmosphere cycling in a global 3-D model for atmospheric mercury: pre-industrial and present-day biogeochemical budgets, and anthropogenic enhancement factors for deposition.  Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 2008. Vol. 22, GB2011. doi:10.1029/2007GB003040. [pdf]

Human impacts on open ocean mercury concentrations. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 2007. Vol. 21, GB4022, doi:10.1029/2006GB002876. [pdf]