The Role of Mercury Redox Reactions in Snow on Snow-to-Air Mercury Transfer

Abstract

Wet deposition of Hg in snow represents a major air-to-land flux of Hg in temperate and polar environments. However, the chemical speciation of Hg in snow and its chemical and physical behavior after deposition are poorly understood. To investigate Hg dynamics in snow, we followed Hg0 and total Hg concentrations in a snowpack above a frozen lake over 1 month. Our results indicate that newly deposited Hg is highly labile in snowpacks. On average, Hg levels in particular snow episodes decrease by 54% within 24 h after deposition. We hypothesize that Hg depletion in snow could be caused by a rapid snow-to-air Hg transfer resulting from Hg(II) photoinduced reduction to volatile Hg0. Both snowmelt incubated under a UV lamp at 17 degrees C and solid snow incubated under the sun at -10 degrees C in clear reaction vessels yielded a statistically significant increase in Hg0(aq) with time of exposure, while the Hg0(aq) levels remained constant in the dark controls. The snow-to-air Hg transfer we observed in this study suggests that the massive Hg deposition events observed in springtime in northern environments may have less impact than previously anticipated, since once deposited, Hg could be rapidly reduced and re-emitted.