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Estimates of recent Hg pollution in Northeast China using peat profiles from Great Hinggan Mountains

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Abstract

Ombrotrophic peatlands are regarded as one of the faithful archives of atmospheric mercury (Hg) deposition, and a large number of studies on Hg accumulation in peatlands have been reported in Europe and North America. Comparatively little information is available about peat chronological records of atmospheric Hg flux in China. We investigated the concentration and historical accumulation rate of Hg (Hg AR) through geochemical analysis of three 210Pb-dated peat cores from Great Hinggan Mountain, Northeast China. Statistical analysis indicated no significant correlations between peat humification proxies and Hg concentration. The average Hg concentration (13.3 ± 1.5 µg kg−1) and Hg AR (7.2 ± 0.9 μg m−2 year−1) in the pre-1830 peat layers were designated as the pre-industrial, background values. The temporal variations of Hg AR show an obvious peak in 1980 ± 10, which correspond to periods of specific social activities where heightened Hg pollution was likely. The major peaking period follows a global trend and the decreasing pattern of Hg AR in the last two decades might be likely due to the increasingly intense global environmental regulation on Hg emission.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41301215), the NSFC-CNRS Joint Research Project (No. 4151101151), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (No. BK20131058), and the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2012CB956100) for financial support. We thank Mr. Haiyang Zhao for his support in field work, Mr. Shaoqing Zhang for the total Hg measurement and Dr. Ruqin Fan for C/N analyses of samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Kunshan Bao & Ji Shen

  2. Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Guoping Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guanshui Road 46, Guizhou, 550002, China

    Atindra Sapkota

  4. Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Science and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K.W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada

    Neil McLaughlin

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  1. Kunshan Bao
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Correspondence to Kunshan Bao.

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Bao, K., Shen, J., Wang, G. et al. Estimates of recent Hg pollution in Northeast China using peat profiles from Great Hinggan Mountains. Environ Earth Sci 75, 536 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-5231-8

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