Greenland glacier melt increases mercury discharge
Greenland glacier melt increases mercury discharge
by EarthSky Voices in » Earth, Science Wire
This article is republished with permission from GlacierHub. This post was written by Yunziyi Lang.
Mercury contamination has long been a threat to animal carnivores and human residents in the Arctic. Mercury exports from river basins to the ocean form a significant component of the Arctic mercury cycle, and are consequently of importance in understanding and addressing this contamination.
Jens Søndergaard of the Arctic Research Centre of Aarhus University, Denmark and his colleagues have been conducting research on this topic in Greenland for a number of years. They published results of their work in the journal Science of the Total Environment in February 2015. Søndergaard and his colleagues assessed the mercury concentrations in and exports from the Zackenberg River Basin in northeast Greenland for the period 2009 – 2013. This basin is about 514 square kilometers in area, of which 106 square kilometers are covered by glaciers. Glacial outburst floods have been regularly observed in Zackenberg River since 1996. This study hypothesized that the frequency, magnitude, and timing of the glacial outburst floods and associated meteorological conditions would significantly influence the riverine mercury budget. Indeed, they found significant variation from year to year, reflecting weather and floods. The total annual mercury release varied from 0.71 kg to over 1.57 kg. These are significant amounts of such a highly toxic substance.
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