Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8871763 | Marine Pollution Bulletin | 2018 | 10 Pages |
Abstract
We comprehensively investigated sedimentary Hg in Yellow and East China Seas (YECSs), which constitute potentially important depocenters for large anthropogenic Hg emissions from mainland China. A large dataset of Al-TOC-Hg concentrations led to an in-depth understanding of sedimentary Hg in the entire YECSs, including distribution and its determinants, source-to-sink, background levels, inventory in flux and budget, and accumulation history. Especially, the net atmospheric Hg flux to the sediments was estimated to be 1.3â¯Ãâ¯10â5â¯g/m2/yr, which corresponded reasonably well to that calculated using a box model. About 21.2â¯tons of atmospheric Hg (approximately 4% of the total anthropogenic atmospheric Hg emissions from China) were buried annually in the YECS basin. This result implies that most of atmospheric Hg from China is transferred to the surface of the Pacific (including the East/Japan Sea and South China Sea) by the westerlies and, consequently, can play a critical role in open-sea aquatic ecosystems.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Oceanography
Authors
Jihun Kim, Dhongil Lim, Dohyun Jung, Jeongwon Kang, Hoisoo Jung, Hanjun Woo, Kapsik Jeong, Zhaokai Xu,