Large subglacial source of mercury from the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61388971%3A_____%2F21%3A00546869" target="_blank" >RIV/61388971:_____/21:00546869 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11310/21:10431643

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00753-w" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00753-w</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00753-w" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41561-021-00753-w</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Large subglacial source of mercury from the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Original language description

The Greenland Ice Sheet is currently not accounted for in Arctic mercury budgets, despite large and increasing annual runoff to the ocean and the socio-economic concerns of high mercury levels in Arctic organisms. Here we present concentrations of mercury in meltwaters from three glacial catchments on the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet and evaluate the export of mercury to downstream fjords based on samples collected during summer ablation seasons. We show that concentrations of dissolved mercury are among the highest recorded in natural waters and mercury yields from these glacial catchments (521-3,300 mmol km(-2) year(-1)) are two orders of magnitude higher than from Arctic rivers (4-20 mmol km(-2) year(-1)). Fluxes of dissolved mercury from the southwestern region of Greenland are estimated to be globally significant (15.4-212 kmol year(-1)), accounting for about 10% of the estimated global riverine flux, and include export of bioaccumulating methylmercury (0.31-1.97 kmol year(-1)). High dissolved mercury concentrations (similar to 20 pM inorganic mercury and similar to 2 pM methylmercury) were found to persist across salinity gradients of fjords. Mean particulate mercury concentrations were among the highest recorded in the literature (similar to 51,000 pM), and dissolved mercury concentrations in runoff exceed reported surface snow and ice values. These results suggest a geological source of mercury at the ice sheet bed. The high concentrations of mercury and its large export to the downstream fjords have important implications for Arctic ecosystems, highlighting an urgent need to better understand mercury dynamics in ice sheet runoff under global warming.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10606 - Microbiology

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Nature Geoscience

ISSN

1752-0894

e-ISSN

1752-0908

Volume of the periodical

14

Issue of the periodical within the volume

7

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

7

Pages from-to

496-502

UT code for WoS article

000653667000001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85106294398