Saiz-Lopez, A., Cuevas, C.A., Acuña, A.U. et al. (22 more authors) (2025) Role of the stratosphere in the global mercury cycle. Science Advances, 11 (2). eads1459. ISSN 2375-2548
Abstract
Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant with substantial risks to human and ecosystem health. By upward transport in tropical regions, mercury enters into the stratosphere, but the contribution of the stratosphere to global mercury dispersion and deposition remains unknown. We find that between 5 and 50% (passing through the 400-kelvin isentropic surface and tropopause, respectively) of the mercury mass deposited on Earth’s surface is chemically processed in the lower stratosphere. Our results show the stratosphere as a unique chemical environment where elemental mercury is efficiently converted to long-lived oxidized species. Subsequent downward transport contributes substantially to the oxidized mercury burden in the troposphere. The results show that the stratosphere facilitates the global dispersion of large amounts of mercury from polluted source regions to Earth’s remote environments. We find that stratospheric transport is as important as tropospheric transport in interhemispheric mercury dispersion. Future projections suggest that expected changes in atmospheric circulation will increase the transport of mercury into the stratosphere.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC 4.0). |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemistry (Leeds) > Physical Chemistry (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > National Centre for Atmos Science (NCAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Jan 2025 13:01 |
Last Modified: | 17 Jan 2025 13:01 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Identification Number: | 10.1126/sciadv.ads1459 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:221907 |