Vegetation uptake of mercury and impacts on global cycling

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that emits in large quantities to the atmosphere (>6,000–8,000 Mg Hg per year) through anthropogenic activities, biomass burning, geogenic degassing and legacy emissions from land and oceans. Up to two-thirds of terrestrial Hg emissions are deposited back onto land, predominantly through vegetation uptake of Hg. In this Review, we assemble a global database of over 35,000 Hg measurements taken across 440 sites and synthesize the sources, distributions and sinks of Hg in foliage and vegetated ecosystems. Lichen and mosses show higher Hg concentrations than vascular plants, and, whereas Hg in above-ground biomass is largely from atmospheric uptake, root Hg is from combined soil and atmospheric uptake. Vegetation Hg uptake from the atmosphere and transfer to soils is the major Hg source in all biomes, globally accounting for 60–90% of terrestrial Hg deposition and decreasing the global atmospheric Hg pool by approximately 660 Mg. Moreover, it reduces the Hg deposition to global oceans, which, in the absence of vegetation, might receive an additional Hg deposition of 960 Mg per year. Vegetation uptake mechanisms need to be better constrained to understand vegetation cycling, and model representation of vegetation Hg cycling should be improved to quantify global vegetation impacts.