Natural surface emissions dominate anthropogenic emissions contributions to total gaseous mercury at Canadian rural sites

Cheng, Irene; Cole, Amanda; Zhang, Leiming; Steffen, Alexandra

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Mercury science to inform international policy: the Multi-Compartment...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 15

Research article

|

07 Aug 2025

Research article |

| 07 Aug 2025

Natural surface emissions dominate anthropogenic emissions contributions to total gaseous mercury at Canadian rural sites

Irene Cheng, Amanda Cole, Leiming Zhang, and Alexandra Steffen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025-supplement

Data sets

Total Gaseous Mercury (TGM) Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada https://doi.org/10.18164/e1df5764-1eec-4a9f-9c03-f515b396b717

Major Ions and Acidifying Gases Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada https://doi.org/10.18164/e73c7f47-df9c-4877-923c-20e09db28176

National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) program, Hourly CO Analysis and Air Quality Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada https://data-donnees.az.ec.gc.ca/data/air/monitor/national-air-pollution-surveillance-naps-program/

Canadian Greenhouse Gas Measurement program, Hourly CO Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada https://gaw.kishou.go.jp/

Air Quality System (AQS), Hourly CO USEPA https://www.epa.gov/aqs

Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE), 24-h EC/OC and total carbon IMPROVE https://vista.cira.colostate.edu/Improve/improve-data/

Historical Climate Data, Hourly temperature Climate Data Services, Environment and Climate Change Canada https://climate.weather.gc.ca/

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Short summary

Using the positive matrix factorization (PMF) model and observations, we showed that natural surface emission (wildfires and re-emitted Hg) dominated anthropogenic contributions to total gaseous mercury (TGM). Decreasing TGM was due to reduced shipping, local combustion, and regional emissions. Relative contributions from natural surface emissions increased by 0.3–1.8 % yr^-1. Results showed Hg control measures have been effective, but greater attention is needed for monitoring surface re-emissions.