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Regional Trends of Isotopic Composition in Total Gaseous Mercury Across the United States

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The dataset presented here represents the concentrations and stable isotopic composition of gaseous mercury (Hg) for 31 sites across the United States. This national-scale monitoring effort was performed by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) and the USGS over a two-year period (March 2016 - May 2018). The network includes a highly diverse set of sites ranging from remote (e.g. Denali National Park, AK and Mauna Loa, HI) to highly urbanized (e.g. Bronx, NY and Boston, MA). Air samples were collected using a custom designed bulk air sampler, in which air was pumped at approximately 1 L/min through particulate and soda lime filters prior to passing through two quartz tubes containing gold coated glass beads where gaseous Hg was collected. Each sampling period was two weeks long. The Hg was thermally desorbed from the gold beads and collected in a liquid oxidizing trap. The total Hg concentration and isotopic composition was determined on this solution. The average total gaseous Hg concentration across sites was 1.23 ± 0.28 ng/m3, but higher concentrations were observed at sites closer to known Hg sources, such as Oak Ridge National Lab (6.53 ng/m3). For all sites, the average odd isotope mass independent fractionation (MIF, Δ199Hg), an indicator of photochemistry, was -0.20 ± 0.07‰ and had a range of -0.43 to 0.01 ‰. Mass dependent fractionation (MDF, δ202Hg), the commonly used isotope ratio for source tracking, was generally positive with a mean value of 0.45 ± 0.40‰, although intermittent negative MDF was also observed at some sites. Urban sites were consistently lighter in δ202Hg (0.34‰) compared to remote background sites (0.65‰), potentially indicating differences between emission sources. Though regional differences in odd MIF and MDF were small, we observed a trend showing enrichment of δ202Hg in the northeastern United States, from the Ohio River Valley to remote sites in northern Maine and Nova Scotia, suggesting a shift from localized emission sources to globally transported Hg across this region.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/8b5d8a21164e343100b0e2ccac9c3cfd
Identifier USGS:5d51e54de4b01d82ce8e205f
Data Last Modified 20230228
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 0959124d-8be0-4f36-a13b-c788f5842732
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -172.9688,21.6166,-59.7656,71.9654
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 6e9d2876c6511c53944d4bc36d724f2bb95cb7923a0a1b4dbe4d3187fffcd58c
Source Schema Version 1.1
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