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Emissions from biomass burning are an important source of mercury (Hg) to the atmosphere and an integral component of the global Hg biogeochemical cycle. In 2018, measurements of gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) were taken on board a research aircraft along with a series of co-emitted contaminants in the emissions plume of an 88 km 2 boreal forest wildfire on the Garson Lake Plain (GLP) in NW Saskatchewan, Canada. A series of four flight tracks were made perpendicular to the plume at increasing distances from the fire, each with three to five passes at different altitudes at each downwind location. The maximum GEM concentration measured on the flight was 2.88 ng m -3 , which is ≈ 2.4 × background concentration. GEM concentrations were significantly correlated with the co-emitted carbon species (CO, CO 2 , and CH 4). Emissions ratios (ERs) were calculated from measured GEM and carbon co-contaminant data. Using the most correlated (least uncertain) of these ratios (GEM:CO), GEM concentrations were estimated at the higher 0.5 Hz time resolution of the CO measurements, resulting in maximum GEM concentrations and enhancements of 6.76 ng m -3 and ≈ 5.6 × , respectively. Extrapolating the estimated maximum 0.5 Hz GEM concentration data from each downwind location back to source, 1 km and 1 m (from fire) concentrations were predicted to be 12.9 and 30.0 ng m -3 , or enhancements of ≈ 11 × and ≈ 25 × , respectively. ERs and emissions factors (EFs) derived from the measured data and literature values were also used to calculate Hg emissions estimates on three spatial scales: (i) the GLP fires themselves, (ii) all boreal forest biomass burning, and (iii) global biomass burning. The most robust estimate was of the GLP fires (21 ± 10 kg of Hg) using calculated EFs that used minimal literature-derived data. Using the Top-down Emission Rate Retrieval Algorithm (TERRA), we were able to determine a similar emission estimate of 22 ± 7 kg of Hg. The elevated uncertainties of the other estimates and high variability between the different methods used in the calculations highlight concerns with some of the assumptions that have been used in calculating Hg biomass burning in the literature. Among these problematic assumptions are variable ERs of contaminants based on vegetation type and fire intensity, differing atmospheric lifetimes of emitted contaminants, the use of only one co-contaminant in emissions estimate calculations, and the paucity of atmospheric Hg species concentration measurements in biomass burning plumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive air samplers (PASs), providing time-averaged concentration of gaseous mercury over the time scale of weeks to months, are promising to fill a gap in the monitoring of atmospheric mercury worldwide. Their usefulness will depend on their ease-of-use and robustness under field conditions, their availability and affordability, and most notably, their ability to provide results of acceptable precision and accuracy. Here we describe a comparative evaluation of three PASs with respect to their ability to record precisely and accurately atmospheric background concentrations at sites in both southern Italy and southern Ontario. The study includes the CNR-PAS with gold nanoparticles as a sorbent, developed by the Italian National Research Council, the IVL-PAS using an activated carbon-coated disk, developed by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and the MerPAS® using a sulfur-impregnated activated carbon sorbent, developed at the University of Toronto and commercialized by Tekran. Detection limits are deduced from the variability in the amount of mercury quantified in more than 20 field blank samples for each PAS. Analytical and sampling precision is quantified through 22 triplicated deployments for each PAS ranging in length from two to twelve weeks. Accuracy and bias are assessed through comparison with gaseous elemental mercury concentrations recorded by Tekran 2537 automated mercury analyzers operating alongside the PASs at both locations. The performance of the PASs was significantly better in Italy, with all of them providing concentrations that are not statistically significantly different from the average of the active sampling results. In Canada, where weather conditions were much harsher and more variable during the February through April deployment period, differences were observed amongst PASs. At both sites, the MerPAS® is currently the most sensitive, precise and accurate among the three PASs. A key reason for this is the larger size and the radial configuration of the MerPAS®, which results in blank levels that are lower relative to the sequestered amounts of mercury than in the other two PASs, which rely on axial diffusion geometries. Because the blank-correction becomes relatively smaller with longer deployment, sampler performance tends to be better during deployments of 8 and 12 weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury (Hg) emitted from biomass burning is an important source of the contaminant to the atmosphere and an integral component of the global Hg biogeochemical cycle. In 2018, measurements of gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) were taken on-board a research aircraft along with a series of co-emitted contaminants in the emissions plume of an 88 km2 boreal forest wildfire on the Garson Lake Plain (GLP) in NW Saskatchewan, Canada. A series of four flight tracks were made perpendicular to the emissions plume at increasing distances from the fire each with 3-5 passes at different altitudes at each downwind location. The maximum GEM concentration measured on the flight was 2.88 ng m−3, which represents a ≈2.4x increase in concentration above background. GEM concentrations were significantly correlated with the co-emitted carbon species (CO, CO2, and CH4). Emissions ratios (ERs) were calculated from measured GEM and carbon co-contaminants data. Using the least uncertain of these ratios (GEM : CO), GEM concentrations were estimated at the higher 0.5 Hz time resolution of the CO measurements resulting in maximum GEM concentrations and enhancements of 6.75 ng m−3 and ≈5.6x, respectively. Extrapolating the estimated maximum 0.5 Hz GEM concentration data from each downwind location back to source, 1 km and 1 m (from fire) concentrations were predicted to be 12.9 and 29.9 ng m−3, or enhancements of ≈11x and ≈25x, respectively. ERs and emissions factors (EFs) derived from the measured data and literature values were also used to calculate Hg emissions estimates on three spatial scales: (i) the GLP fires themselves, (ii) all boreal forest biomass burning, and (iii) global biomass burning. The most robust estimate was of the GLP fires (21 ± 10 kg of Hg) using calculated EFs that used minimal literature derived data. Using a Top-down Emission Rate Retrieval Algorithm (TERRA) we were able to determine a similar emission estimate of 22 ± 7 kg of Hg. The elevated uncertainties of the other estimates and high variability between the different methods used in the calculations highlight concerns with some of the assumptions that have been used in calculating Hg biomass burning in the literature. Among these problematic assumptions are variable ERs of contaminants based on vegetation type and fire intensity, differing atmospheric lifetimes of emitted contaminants, the use of only one co-contaminant in emissions estimate calculations, and the paucity of atmospheric Hg species concentration measurements in biomass burning plumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports of abruptly declining flows of Canada's Athabasca River have prompted concern because this large, free-flowing river could be representative for northern North America, provides water for the massive Athabasca oil-sands projects and flows to the extensive and biodiverse Peace-Athabasca, Slave and Mackenzie River deltas. To investigate historic hydrology along the river and its major tributaries, we expanded the time series with interpolations for short data gaps; calculations of annual discharges from early, summer-only records; and by splicing records across sequential hydrometric gauges. These produced composite, century-long records (1913-2011) and trend detection with linear Pearson correlation provided similar outcomes to nonparametric Kendall τ-b tests. These revealed that the mountain and foothills reaches displayed slight increases in winter discharges versus larger declines in summer discharges and consequently declining annual flows (~0.16% per year at Hinton; p < 0.01). Conversely, with contrasting boreal contributions, the Athabasca River at Athabasca displayed no overall trend in monthly or annual flows, but there was correspondence with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation that contributed to a temporary flow decline from 1970 to 2000. These findings from century-long records contrast with interpretations from numerous shorter-term studies and emphasize the need for sufficient time series for hydrologic trend analyses. For Northern Hemisphere rivers, the study interval should be at least 80 years to span two Pacific Decadal Oscillation cycles and dampen the influence from phase transitions. Most prior trend analyses considered only a few decades, and this weakens interpretations of the hydrologic consequences of climate change. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]