Gaseous mercury emissions from soil following forest loss and land use changes: Field experiments in the United States and Brazil

Autor(es)

Carpi, Anthony ^{[1, 2]} ; Fostier, Anne H. ^[3] ; Orta, Olivia R. ^{[1, 4]} ; dos Santos, Jose Carlos ^[5] ; Gittings, Michael ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] CUNY John Jay Coll Criminal Justice, Dept Sci, New York, NY 10019 - USA

^[2] CUNY, Grad Ctr, Earth & Environm Sci Program, New York, NY 10016 - USA

^[3] Univ Estadual Campinas, UNICAMP, Inst Chem, BR-13083970 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[4] Harvard Univ, Sch Publ Hlth, Dept Epidemiol, Boston, MA 02115 - USA

^[5] Natl Space Res Inst, INPE, BR-12630000 Cachoeira Paulista, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Atmospheric Environment; v. 96, p. 423-429, OCT 2014.
• Citações Web of Science: 16

Resumo

Forest ecosystems are a sink of atmospheric mercury, trapping the metal in the canopy, and storing it in the forest floor after litter fall. Fire liberates a portion of this mercury; however, little is known about the long-term release of mercury post deforestation. We conducted two large-scale experiments to study this phenomenon. In upstate New York, gaseous mercury emissions from soil were monitored continually using a Teflon dynamic surface flux chamber for two-weeks before and after cutting of the canopy on the edge of a deciduous forest. In Brazil, gaseous mercury emissions from soil were monitored in an intact Ombrophilous Open forest and an adjacent field site both before and after the field site was cleared by burning. In the intact forest, gaseous mercury emissions from soil averaged -0.73 +/- 1.84 ng m(-2) h(-1) (24-h monitoring) at the New York site, and 0.33 +/- 0.09 ng m(-2) h(-1) (daytime-only) at the Brazil site. After deforestation, gaseous mercury emissions from soil averaged 9.13 +/- 2.08 ng m(-2) h(-1) in New York and 21.2 +/- 0.35 ng m(-2) h(-1) at the Brazil site prior to burning. Gaseous mercury emissions averaged 74.9 +/- 0.73 ng m(-2) h(-1) after burning of the cut forest in Brazil. Extrapolating our data, measured over several weeks to months, to a full year period, deforested soil is estimated to release an additional 2.30 g ha(-1) yr(-1) of gaseous mercury to the atmosphere in the Brazilian experiment and 0.41 g ha(-1) yr(-1) in the New York experiment. In Brazil, this represents an additional 50% of the mercury load released during the fire itself. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 11/05736-0 - Influência do desflorestamento sobre as emissões de mercúrio pelo solo na região de Alta Floresta (MT)
• Beneficiário: Anne Helene Fostier
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Pesquisador Visitante - Internacional