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Spatial variability of mercury emissions from soils in a southeastern US urban environment

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

We quantified gaseous mercury (Hg0) fluxes over soil surfaces in an urban setting during the winters of 2003 and 2004 across the metropolitan area of Tuscaloosa, AL. The objective was to provide a first inspection of the local spatial variability of mercury flux in an urban area. Flux sampling took place on bare, undisturbed, soil surfaces within four evenly spaced landuse areas of Tuscaloosa: industrial, commercial, residential, and mixed landuse. Median total gaseous mercury fluxes (ng/m2 h) from each site were as follows: 4.45 (residential site), 1.40 (industrial site), 2.14 (commercial site), and 0.87 (mixed landuse site). Using non-parametric statistical analyses, the residential and mixed landuse sites were found to be statistically different from the overall median flux. Landuse and soil type are the suspected factors primarily controlling the observed spatially variable fluxes. The presence of statistically different fluxes over soil surfaces on a local scale in this preliminary study warrants additional investigation, particularly during the spring and summer seasons when terrestrial mercury emission is the highest. Providing such information will help develop better estimates of mercury emission from urban areas and, ultimately, lead to more accurate and useful spatially relevant inventories.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Atmospheric Turbulence Division (ATDD) and George Southworth and Mary Ann Bogle at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for providing Tekran instrumentation and technical expertise. This research was financially supported by DOE EPSCOR and the University of Alabama, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Alabama, Box 870205, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0205, USA

    Mark C. Gabriel & Derek G. Williamson

  2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ATDD, P.O. Box 2456, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831-2456, USA

    Steve Brooks

  3. Department of Chemistry, Tennessee Tech University, P.O. Box 5055, Cookeville, TN, 38505-0001, USA

    Hong Zhang

  4. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831-6038, USA

    Steve Lindberg

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  1. Mark C. Gabriel
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  2. Derek G. Williamson
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  3. Steve Brooks
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  4. Hong Zhang
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  5. Steve Lindberg
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Correspondence to Derek G. Williamson.

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Gabriel, M.C., Williamson, D.G., Brooks, S. et al. Spatial variability of mercury emissions from soils in a southeastern US urban environment. Environ Geol 48, 955–964 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-005-0043-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-005-0043-x

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