A non-steady-state compartmental model of global-scale mercury biogeochemistry with interhemispheric atmospheric gradients

Abstract

A box model of mercury (Hg) cycling between the atmosphere and ocean is described and used to estimate Hg fluxes on a global scale (The Global/Regional Interhemispheric Mercury Model, GRIMM). Unlike previous simulations of this system, few assumptions are made concerning the rate of prominent marine biogeochemical processes affecting Hg (e.g., evasion, particle scavenging, and deep ocean burial). Instead, consistency with two observed atmospheric distributions was required: the interhemispheric gradient in total atmospheric Hg and the value for changes in the deposition of Hg from the atmosphere since industrialization observed in both hemispheres. Sensitivity analyses underscore the importance to modeling of the atmospheric lifetime of Hg, the magnitude of the interhemispheric gradient, the historical changes in Hg concentrations of various reservoirs, and vertical exchange between the surface ocean and the permanent thermocline. Results of the model indicate: lower evasional fluxes of Hg from the global ocean than previous estimates; a prominent role for particle scavenging as a removal mechanism from the surface ocean; a modest influence of dry processes (dust and gas) on Hg removal from the atmosphere; and an estimate of natural land-based sources of Hg to the atmosphere that is no more than about half that of anthropogenic sources.