Open AccessMultidecadal declines in particulate mercury and sediment export from Russian rivers in the pan-Arctic basin
Author(s) -
Scott Zolkos,
Alexander V. Zhulidov,
Tatiana Yu Gurtovaya,
В. В. Гордеев,
С. В. Бердников,
Н. М. Павлова,
Evgenia A. Kalko,
Yana A. Kuklina,
Danil A Zhulidov,
Л. С. Косменко,
A. I. Shiklomanov,
Anya Suslova,
Benjamin M. Geyman,
Colin P. Thackray,
Elsie M. Sunderland,
Suzanne E. Tank,
James W. McClelland,
Robert G. M. Spencer,
David P. Krabbenhoft,
Richard D. Robarts,
Robert M. Holmes
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2119857119
Subject(s) - mercury (programming language) , arctic , particulates , environmental science , methylmercury , pollution , the arctic , sediment , drainage basin , structural basin , oceanography , particulate pollution , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental chemistry , geology , geography , ecology , chemistry , bioaccumulation , geomorphology , cartography , geotechnical engineering , computer science , biology , programming language
Significance Russian rivers are the predominant source of riverine mercury to the Arctic Ocean, where methylmercury biomagnifies to high levels in food webs. Pollution controls are thought to have decreased late–20th-century mercury loading to Arctic watersheds, but there are no published long-term observations on mercury in Russian rivers. Here, we present a unique hydrochemistry dataset to determine trends in Russian river particulate mercury concentrations and fluxes in recent decades. Using hydrologic and mercury deposition modeling together with multivariate time series analysis, we determine that 70 to 90% declines in particulate mercury fluxes were driven by pollution reductions and sedimentation in reservoirs. Results suggest that Russian rivers likely dominated over all other sources of mercury to the Arctic Ocean until recently.