Gaseous mercury fluxes from the forest floor of the Adirondacks.

Environ Pollut

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Avenue, Potsdam, NY 13699-5710, USA.

Published: February 2009

The flux of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0)) from the forest floor of the Adirondack Mountains in New York (USA) was measured numerous times throughout 2005 and 2006 using a polycarbonate dynamic flux chamber (DFC). The Hg flux ranged between -2.5 and 27.2 ng m(-2) h(-1) and was positively correlated with temperature and solar radiation. The measured Hg emission flux was highest in spring, and summer, and lowest in winter. During leaf-off periods, the Hg emission flux was highly dependent on solar radiation and less dependent on temperature. During leaf-on periods, the Hg emission flux was fairly constant because the forest canopy was shading the forest floor. Two empirical models were developed to estimate yearly Hg(0) emissions, one for the leaf-off period and one for the leaf-on period. Using the U.S. EPA's CASTNET meteorological data, the cumulative estimated emission flux was approx. 7.0 microg Hg(0) m(-2) year(-1).

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2008.08.020DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

emission flux
16
forest floor
12
solar radiation
8
periods emission
8
flux
7
gaseous mercury
4
mercury fluxes
4
forest
4
fluxes forest
4
floor adirondacks
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!