Articles | Volume 25, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025
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

Related authors

Long-term declines in atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur deposition reduce critical loads exceedances at multiple Canadian rural sites, 2000–2018
Irene Cheng, Leiming Zhang, Zhuanshi He, Hazel Cathcart, Daniel Houle, Amanda Cole, Jian Feng, Jason O'Brien, Anne Marie Macdonald, Julian Aherne, and Jeffrey Brook
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14631–14656, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14631-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14631-2022, 2022
Short summary
Emissions databases for polycyclic aromatic compounds in the Canadian Athabasca oil sands region – development using current knowledge and evaluation with passive sampling and air dispersion modelling data
Xin Qiu, Irene Cheng, Fuquan Yang, Erin Horb, Leiming Zhang, and Tom Harner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 3457–3467, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-3457-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-3457-2018, 2018
Short summary
Long-term air concentrations, wet deposition, and scavenging ratios of inorganic ions, HNO3, and SO2 and assessment of aerosol and precipitation acidity at Canadian rural locations
Irene Cheng and Leiming Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 4711–4730, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4711-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4711-2017, 2017
Short summary
Potential sources and processes affecting speciated atmospheric mercury at Kejimkujik National Park, Canada: comparison of receptor models and data treatment methods
Xiaohong Xu, Yanyin Liao, Irene Cheng, and Leiming Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 1381–1400, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1381-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1381-2017, 2017
Short summary
Current understanding of the driving mechanisms for spatiotemporal variations of atmospheric speciated mercury: a review
Huiting Mao, Irene Cheng, and Leiming Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 12897–12924, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-12897-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-12897-2016, 2016
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
Wanmin Gong, Stephen R. Beagley, Kenjiro Toyota, Henrik Skov, Jesper Heile Christensen, Alex Lupu, Diane Pendlebury, Junhua Zhang, Ulas Im, Yugo Kanaya, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Roberto Sommariva, Peter Effertz, John W. Halfacre, Nis Jepsen, Rigel Kivi, Theodore K. Koenig, Katrin Müller, Claus Nordstrøm, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Paul B. Shepson, William R. Simpson, Sverre Solberg, Ralf M. Staebler, David W. Tarasick, Roeland Van Malderen, and Mika Vestenius
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8355–8405, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8355-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8355-2025, 2025
Short summary
Influence of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emission changes on tropospheric ozone variability, trends and radiative effect
Suvarna Fadnavis, Yasin Elshorbany, Jerald Ziemke, Brice Barret, Alexandru Rap, P. R. Satheesh Chandran, Richard J. Pope, Vijay Sagar, Domenico Taraborrelli, Eric Le Flochmoen, Juan Cuesta, Catherine Wespes, Folkert Boersma, Isolde Glissenaar, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Van Roozendael, Hervé Petetin, and Isidora Anglou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8229–8254, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8229-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8229-2025, 2025
Short summary
Tropospheric ozone trends and attributions over East and Southeast Asia in 1995–2019: an integrated assessment using statistical methods, machine learning models, and multiple chemical transport models
Xiao Lu, Yiming Liu, Jiayin Su, Xiang Weng, Tabish Ansari, Yuqiang Zhang, Guowen He, Yuqi Zhu, Haolin Wang, Ganquan Zeng, Jingyu Li, Cheng He, Shuai Li, Teerachai Amnuaylojaroen, Tim Butler, Qi Fan, Shaojia Fan, Grant L. Forster, Meng Gao, Jianlin Hu, Yugo Kanaya, Mohd Talib Latif, Keding Lu, Philippe Nédélec, Peer Nowack, Bastien Sauvage, Xiaobin Xu, Lin Zhang, Ke Li, Ja-Ho Koo, and Tatsuya Nagashima
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7991–8028, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7991-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7991-2025, 2025
Short summary
Characterization of reactive oxidized nitrogen in the global upper troposphere using recent and historic commercial and research aircraft campaigns and GEOS-Chem
Nana Wei, Eloise A. Marais, Gongda Lu, Robert G. Ryan, and Bastien Sauvage
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7925–7940, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7925-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7925-2025, 2025
Short summary
Soil deposition of atmospheric hydrogen constrained using planetary-scale observations
Alexander K. Tardito Chaudhri and David S. Stevenson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7369–7385, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7369-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7369-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Agnan, Y., Le Dantec, T., Moore, C. W., Edwards, G. C., and Obrist, D.: New constraints on terrestrial surface–atmosphere fluxes of gaseous elemental mercury using a global database, Environ. Sci. Technol., 50, 507–524, 2016. 
Anastasopolos, A. T., Sofowote, U. M., Hopke, P. K., Rouleau, M., Shin, T., Dheri, A., Peng, H., Kulka, R., Gibson, M. D., Farah, P. M., and Sundar, N.: Air quality in Canadian port cities after regulation of low-sulphur marine fuel in the North American Emissions Control Area, Sci. Total Environ., 791, 147949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147949, 2021. 
Brown, S. G., Eberly, S., Paatero, P., and Norris, G. A.: Methods for Estimating Uncertainty in PMF Solutions: Examples with Ambient Air and Water Quality Data and Guidance on Reporting PMF Results, Sci. Total Environ., 518, 626–635, 2015. 
Campbell, P. C., Tong, D., Saylor, R., Li, Y., Ma, S., Zhang, X., Kondragunta, S., and Li, F.: Pronounced increases in nitrogen emissions and deposition due to the historic 2020 wildfires in the western US, Sci. Total Environ., 839, 156130, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156130, 2022. 
Chen, J., Anderson, K., Pavlovic, R., Moran, M. D., Englefield, P., Thompson, D. K., Munoz-Alpizar, R., and Landry, H.: The FireWork v2.0 air quality forecast system with biomass burning emissions from the Canadian Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System v2.03, Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 3283–3310, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3283-2019, 2019. 
Download
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.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint