Impacts of Anthropogenic Emissions and Meteorological Variation on Hg Wet Deposition in Chongming, China

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) is a ubiquitous environmental toxicant that has caused global concern due to its persistence and bioaccumulation in the environment. Wet deposition is a crucial Hg input for both terrestrial and aquatic environments and is a significant indicator for evaluating the effectiveness of anthropogenic Hg control. Rainwater samples were collected from May 2014 to October 2018 in Chongming Island to understand the multi-year Hg wet deposition characteristics. The annual Hg wet deposition flux ranged from 2.6 to 9.8 μg m−2 yr−1 (mean: 4.9 μg m−2 yr−1). Hg wet deposition flux in Chongming was comparable to the observations at temperate and subtropical background sites (2.0–10.2 μg m−2 yr−1) in the northern hemisphere. Hg wet deposition flux decreased from 8.6 μg m−2 yr−1 in 2014–2015 to 3.8 μg m−2 yr−1 in 2016 and was attributed to a decrease in the volume-weighted mean (VWM) Hg concentration (−4.1 ng L−1 yr−1). The reduced VWM Hg was explained by the decreasing atmospheric Hg and anthropogenic emissions reductions. The annual Hg wet deposition flux further decreased from 3.8 μg m−2 in 2016 to 2.6 μg m−2 in 2018. The reduction of warm season (April–September) rainfall amounts (356–845 mm) mainly contributed to the Hg wet deposition flux reduction during 2016–2018. The multi-year monitoring results suggest that long-term measurements are necessary when using wet deposition as an indicator to reflect the impact of anthropogenic efforts on mercury pollution control and meteorological condition variations.