Reconstructing atmospheric Hg levels near the oldest chemical factory in central Europe using a tree ring archive

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61388980%3A_____%2F22%3A00556471" target="_blank" >RIV/61388980:_____/22:00556471 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/67985831:_____/22:00556471 RIV/44555601:13520/22:43897051

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749122004298?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749122004298?via%3Dihub</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119215" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119215</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Reconstructing atmospheric Hg levels near the oldest chemical factory in central Europe using a tree ring archive

Original language description

The Chemical Factory in Marktredwitz (CFM) is known as the oldest chemical factory in Germany (1778–1985), and from the beginning of the 20th century focused primarily on the production of mercury (Hg) compounds. Due to extensive pollution, together with employee health issues, the CFM was shut in 1985 by a government order and remediation works proceeded from 1986 to 1993. In this study, tree ring archives of European Larch (Larix decidua Mill.) were used to reconstruct changes of air Hg levels near the CFM. Mercury concentrations in larch boles decreased from 80.6 μg kg-1 at a distance of 0.34 km–3.4 μg kg-1 at a distance of 16 km. The temporal trend of atmospheric Hg emissions from the CFM reconstructed from the tree ring archives showed two main peaks. The first was in the 1920s, with a maximum tree ring Hg concentration 249.1 ± 43.9 μg kg-1 coinciding with when the factory had a worldwide monopoly on the production of Hg-based seed dressing fungicide. The second peak in the 1970s, with a maximum tree ring Hg concentration of 116.4 ± 6.3 μg kg-1, was associated with a peak in the general usage and production of Hg chemicals and goods. We used the tree ring record to reconstruct past atmospheric Hg levels using a simple model of Hg distribution between the larch tree rings and atmosphere. The precision of the tree ring model was checked against the results of air Hg measurements during the CFM remediation 30 years ago. According to the tree ring archives, the highest air Hg concentrations in the 1920s in Marktredwitz were over 70 ng m-3. Current air Hg levels of 1.18 ng m-3, assessed in the city of Marktredwitz, indicate the lowest air Hg in the past 150 years, underscoring the effective remediation of the CFM premises 30 years ago.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

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

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA20-06728S" target="_blank" >GA20-06728S: Enter of Cd, Hg, and U from the pollution hotspots in floodplains to food web</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Environmental Pollution

ISSN

0269-7491

e-ISSN

1873-6424

Volume of the periodical

304

Issue of the periodical within the volume

July

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

119215

UT code for WoS article

000791701300003

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85127310896