Comment on "Atmospheric mercury accumulation rates between 5900 and 800 calibrated years BP in the high arctic of canada recorded by peat hummocks"

Mercury in the Canadian Arctic terrestrial environment: an update

Contaminants in the Canadian Arctic have been studied over the last twenty years under the guidance of the Northern Contaminants Program. This paper provides the current state of knowledge on mercury (Hg) in the Canadian Arctic terrestrial environment. Snow, ice, and soils on land are key reservoirs for atmospheric deposition and can become sources of Hg through the melting of terrestrial ice and snow and via soil erosion. In the Canadian Arctic, new data have been collected for snow and ice that provide more information on the net accumulation and storage of Hg in the cryosphere. Concentrations of total Hg (THg) in terrestrial snow are highly variable but on average, relatively low (<5 ng L(-1)), and methylmercury (MeHg) levels in terrestrial snow are also generally low (<0.1 ng L(-1)). On average, THg concentrations in snow on Canadian Arctic glaciers are much lower than those reported on terrestrial lowlands or sea ice. Hg in snow may be affected by photochemical exchanges with the atmosphere mediated by marine aerosols and halogens, and by post-depositional redistribution within the snow pack. Regional accumulation rates of THg in Canadian Arctic glaciers varied little during the past century but show evidence of an increasing north-to-south gradient. Temporal trends of THg in glacier cores indicate an abrupt increase in the early 1990 s, possibly due to volcanic emissions, followed by more stable, but relatively elevated levels. Little information is available on Hg concentrations and processes in Arctic soils. Terrestrial Arctic wildlife typically have low levels of THg (<5 μg g(-1) dry weight) in their tissues, although caribou (Rangifer tarandus) can have higher Hg because they consume large amounts of lichen. THg concentrations in the Yukon's Porcupine caribou herd vary among years but there has been no significant increase or decrease over the last two decades.

How well do environmental archives of atmospheric mercury deposition in the Arctic reproduce rates and trends depicted by atmospheric models and measurements?

This review compares the reconstruction of atmospheric Hg deposition rates and historical trends over recent decades in the Arctic, inferred from Hg profiles in natural archives such as lake and marine sediments, peat bogs and glacial firn (permanent snowpack), against those predicted by three state-of-the-art atmospheric models based on global Hg emission inventories from 1990 onwards. Model veracity was first tested against atmospheric Hg measurements. Most of the natural archive and atmospheric data came from the Canadian-Greenland sectors of the Arctic, whereas spatial coverage was poor in other regions. In general, for the Canadian-Greenland Arctic, models provided good agreement with atmospheric gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) concentrations and trends measured instrumentally. However, there are few instrumented deposition data with which to test the model estimates of Hg deposition, and these data suggest models over-estimated deposition fluxes under Arctic conditions. Reconstructed GEM data from glacial firn on Greenland Summit showed the best agreement with the known decline in global Hg emissions after about 1980, and were corroborated by archived aerosol filter data from Resolute, Nunavut. The relatively stable or slowly declining firn and model GEM trends after 1990 were also corroborated by real-time instrument measurements at Alert, Nunavut, after 1995. However, Hg fluxes and trends in northern Canadian lake sediments and a southern Greenland peat bog did not exhibit good agreement with model predictions of atmospheric deposition since 1990, the Greenland firn GEM record, direct GEM measurements, or trends in global emissions since 1980. Various explanations are proposed to account for these discrepancies between atmosphere and archives, including problems with the accuracy of archive chronologies, climate-driven changes in Hg transfer rates from air to catchments, waters and subsequently into sediments, and post-depositional diagenesis in peat bogs. However, no general consensus in the scientific community has been achieved.

The origin of lead in the organic horizon of tundra soils: atmospheric deposition, plant translocation from the mineral soil or soil mineral mixing?

Knowledge of the anthropogenic contribution to lead (Pb) concentrations in surface soils in high latitude ecosystems is central to our understanding of the extent of atmospheric Pb contamination. In this study, we reconstructed fallout of Pb at a remote sub-arctic region by using two ombrotrophic peat cores and assessed the extent to which this airborne Pb is able to explain the isotopic composition ((206)Pb/(207)Pb ratio) in the O-horizon of tundra soils. In the peat cores, long-range atmospheric fallout appeared to be the main source of Pb as indicated by temporal trends that followed the known European pollution history, i.e. accelerated fallout at the onset of industrialization and peak fallout around the 1960s-70s. The Pb isotopic composition of the O-horizon of podzolic tundra soil ((206)Pb/(207)Pb=1.170 ± 0.002; mean ± SD) overlapped with that of the peat ((206)Pb/(207)Pb=1.16 ± 0.01) representing a proxy for atmospheric aerosols, but was clearly different from that of the parent soil material ((206)Pb/(207)Pb=1.22-1.30). This finding indicated that long-range fallout of atmospheric Pb is the main driver of Pb accumulation in podzolic tundra soil. In O-horizons of tundra soil weakly affected by cryoturbation (cryosols) however, the input of Pb from the underlying mineral soil increased as indicated by (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios of up to 1.20, a value closer to that of local soil minerals. Nevertheless, atmospheric Pb appeared to be the dominant source in this soil compartment. We conclude that Pb concentrations in the O-horizon of studied tundra soils - despite being much lower than in boreal soils and representative for one of the least exposed sites to atmospheric Pb contaminants in Europe - are mainly controlled by atmospheric inputs from distant anthropogenic sources.