Particulate mercury in ambient air in Shanghai, China: Size-specific distribution, gas-particle partitioning, and association with carbonaceous composition

In the atmosphere, gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) is the dominant atmospheric mercury species (>90% of the total), it could eventually be removed from atmosphere through oxidating to more water soluble divalent species, e.g. reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) and particle bound mercury (PBM). These oxidized mercury can be reduced by various atmospheric reductants in aerosols, fog, cloud and interfaces, ultimately affecting their atmospheric fate as well as the biogeochemical cycle.305