Articles | Volume 16, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3061-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3061-2016
Review article
 | 
09 Mar 2016
Review article |  | 09 Mar 2016

Passive air sampling of gaseous elemental mercury: a critical review

David S. McLagan, Maxwell E. E. Mazur, Carl P. J. Mitchell, and Frank Wania

Related authors

The Multi-Compartment Hg Modeling and Analysis Project (MCHgMAP): Mercury modeling to support international environmental policy
Ashu Dastoor, Hélène Angot, Johannes Bieser, Flora Brocza, Brock Edwards, Aryeh Feinberg, Xinbin Feng, Benjamin Geyman, Charikleia Gournia, Yipeng He, Ian M. Hedgecock, Ilia Ilyin, Terry Keating, Jane Kirk, Che-Jen Lin, Igor Lehnherr, Robert Mason, David McLagan, Marilena Muntean, Peter Rafaj, Eric M. Roy, Andrei Ryjkov, Noelle E. Selin, Francesco De Simone, Anne L. Soerensen, Frits Steenhuisen, Oleg Travnikov, Shuxiao Wang, Xun Wang, Simon Wilson, Rosa Wu, Qingru Wu, Yanxu Zhang, Jun Zhou, Wei Zhu, and Scott Zolkos
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-65,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-65, 2024
Revised manuscript under review for GMD
Short summary
Organic matters, but inorganic matters too: column examination of elevated mercury sorption on low organic matter aquifer material using concentrations and stable isotope ratios
David S. McLagan, Carina Esser, Lorenz Schwab, Jan G. Wiederhold, Jan-Helge Richard, and Harald Biester
SOIL, 10, 77–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-77-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-77-2024, 2024
Short summary
Internal tree cycling and atmospheric archiving of mercury: examination with concentration and stable isotope analyses
David S. McLagan, Harald Biester, Tomas Navrátil, Stephan M. Kraemer, and Lorenz Schwab
Biogeosciences, 19, 4415–4429, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4415-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4415-2022, 2022
Short summary
Where there is smoke there is mercury: Assessing boreal forest fire mercury emissions using aircraft and highlighting uncertainties associated with upscaling emissions estimates
David S. McLagan, Geoff W. Stupple, Andrea Darlington, Katherine Hayden, and Alexandra Steffen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5635–5653, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5635-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5635-2021, 2021
Short summary
Global evaluation and calibration of a passive air sampler for gaseous mercury
David S. McLagan, Carl P. J. Mitchell, Alexandra Steffen, Hayley Hung, Cecilia Shin, Geoff W. Stupple, Mark L. Olson, Winston T. Luke, Paul Kelley, Dean Howard, Grant C. Edwards, Peter F. Nelson, Hang Xiao, Guey-Rong Sheu, Annekatrin Dreyer, Haiyong Huang, Batual Abdul Hussain, Ying D. Lei, Ilana Tavshunsky, and Frank Wania
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5905–5919, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5905-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5905-2018, 2018
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Field Measurements | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
Ozone deposition measurements over wheat fields in the North China Plain: variability and related factors of deposition flux and velocity
Xiaoyi Zhang, Wanyun Xu, Weili Lin, Gen Zhang, Jinjian Geng, Li Zhou, Huarong Zhao, Sanxue Ren, Guangsheng Zhou, Jianmin Chen, and Xiaobin Xu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12323–12340, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12323-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12323-2024, 2024
Short summary
Consistency evaluation of tropospheric ozone from ozonesonde and IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) observations: vertical distribution, ozonesonde types, and station–airport distance
Honglei Wang, David W. Tarasick, Jane Liu, Herman G. J. Smit, Roeland Van Malderen, Lijuan Shen, Romain Blot, and Tianliang Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11927–11942, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11927-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11927-2024, 2024
Short summary
CO2 and CO temporal variability over Mexico City from ground-based total column and surface measurements
Noémie Taquet, Wolfgang Stremme, María Eugenia González del Castillo, Victor Almanza, Alejandro Bezanilla, Olivier Laurent, Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Michel Ramonet, Thomas Lauvaux, Ke Che, and Michel Grutter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11823–11848, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11823-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11823-2024, 2024
Short summary
Investigating carbonyl compounds above the Amazon rainforest using a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) with NO+ chemical ionization
Akima Ringsdorf, Achim Edtbauer, Bruna Holanda, Christopher Poehlker, Marta O. Sá, Alessandro Araújo, Jürgen Kesselmeier, Jos Lelieveld, and Jonathan Williams
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11883–11910, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11883-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11883-2024, 2024
Short summary
Measurement report: In-flight and ground-based measurements of nitrogen oxide emissions from latest-generation jet engines and 100 % sustainable aviation fuel
Theresa Harlass, Rebecca Dischl, Stefan Kaufmann, Raphael Märkl, Daniel Sauer, Monika Scheibe, Paul Stock, Tiziana Bräuer, Andreas Dörnbrack, Anke Roiger, Hans Schlager, Ulrich Schumann, Magdalena Pühl, Tobias Schripp, Tobias Grein, Linda Bondorf, Charles Renard, Maxime Gauthier, Mark Johnson, Darren Luff, Paul Madden, Peter Swann, Denise Ahrens, Reetu Sallinen, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11807–11822, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11807-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11807-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

AMAP: Assessment 2011: Mercury in the Arctic, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Oslo, Norway/Geneva Switzerland, 193 pp., 2011.
AMAP/UNEP: Technical Background Report for the Global Mercury Assessment 2013, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme/United Nations Environment Programme, Oslo, Norway/Geneva, Switzerland, 263 pp., 2013.
Barbosa, A., De Souza, J., Dorea, J., Jardim, W., and Fadini, P.: Mercury biomagnification in a tropical black water, Rio Negro, Brazil, Arch. Environ. Con. Tox., 45, 235–246, 2003.
Bartkow, M. E., Booij, K., Kennedy, K. E., Müller, J. F., and Hawker, D. W.: Passive air sampling theory for semivolatile organic compounds, Chemosphere, 60, 170–176, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2004.12.033, 2005.
Bohlin, P., Jones, K. C., and Strandberg, B.: Occupational and indoor air exposure to persistent organic pollutants: A review of passive sampling techniques and needs, J. Environ. Monitor., 9, 501–509, 2007.
Short summary
For more than 20 years, scientists and engineers have tried to design simple sampling devices that can collect gaseous elemental mercury from the atmosphere without the use of a pump. A thorough review of the sampler designs that have been presented so far suggests that while some may be suitable for measuring higher air concentrations close to sources, none of them have the accuracy and precision required to record the low atmospheric mercury concentrations prevalent in background regions.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint