HR: 15:25h
AN: B13F-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Mercury Emission to the Atmosphere from Experimental Manipulation of DOC and UVR in Mesoscale Field Chambers in a Freshwater Lake
AU: * Peters, S C
EM: scp2@lehigh.edu
AF: Earth and Environmental Sciences Dept, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Dr, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AU: Wollenberg, J L
EM: jlw9@lehigh.edu
AF: Earth and Environmental Sciences Dept, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Dr, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AU: Morris, D P
EM: dpm2@lehigh.edu
AF: Earth and Environmental Sciences Dept, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Dr, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AU: Porter, J A
EM: japh@lehigh.edu
AF: Earth and Environmental Sciences Dept, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Dr, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AB: Mesocosm experiments in an optically transparent lake allow the manipulation of both dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and incident ultraviolet radiation (UVR) in order to study mercury reduction and emission processes. In the absence of UVR and presence of visible light, mercury emission is very low (~0.3 ng/m²/h). When UVR is permitted in the mesocosm chambers, mercury emission increases, with emission rates ranging from 0.3 ng/m²/h to 2.5 ng/m²/h. At concentrations between 1.5 and 2.5 mg/L DOC, mercury emission does not appear to depend on either the concentration or the optical properties of the DOC. In particular the addition of 1.0 mg/L DOC from a nearby wetland to a photobleached mesocosm did not increase the emission of mercury. The similarities between mercury emission from highly photobleached 1.5 mg/L DOC and from terrestrially enriched 2.5 mg/L DOC suggest that the moieties responsible for mercury reduction are far in excess of that needed for mercury reduction. Using the measured flux rate of mercury from the water surface, we calculated a dissolved gaseous mercury (DGM) concentration that would need to be present to drive the emissive flux. The buildup of DGM was used to approximate a kinetic rate constant for the net mercury reduction in this system of approximately 0.17 h^-1, which is consistent with existing published values.
UR: http://www.lehigh.edu/~scp2
DE: 0400 BIOGEOSCIENCES
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting