Influence of Human Activity on Hg Transportation

Abstract

Hg pollutes the environment, living organisms, and humans; hence, studying Hg content is essential for human health security. Using the dataset in May, September, and October, the Hg content, horizontal distribution, sources and transportation paths in the waters of Jiaozhou Bay were easily determined. These results indicate that the Hg content changing range in the waters in May, September and October was 0.015-0.150 μg/L, corresponding to the national seawater quality standards of Class I and Class II. The Hg content in the water body mainly arises from two sources, the transportation of rivers and offshore ocean currents. It from rivers' offshore ocean currents was 0.019-0.150 μg/L and 0.020 μg/L, respectively. Among them, the transportation of rivers includes the transportation of Haibo River, Licun River and Loushan River. So, a model block diagram has been built to unveil Hg contents and its different paths during the transportation to Jiaozhou Bay. Thus, it becomes easy to quantitively determine the migration process of Hg content through human activities to the ocean and rivers. Hg's different paths and contents reveal four rules for entering Jiaozhou Bay. In May, the offshore ocean currents and Haibo River did not affect by Hg pollution. In September, the Laoshan River was not polluted by it. In October, the Licun River was not, while the Haibo River exhibited light Hg pollution. When the Hg content transported by rivers was relatively low, it by offshore ocean currents became visible. From May to October, three rivers were transporting Hg content. Hg mildly polluted only one river in October, depicting that human activity is a key concern for environmental protection. It discharged by humans to land was relatively low, meanwhile only once was river transportation slightly polluted by it.