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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Sustainable Agricultural Water Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #393779
Research Project: Improved Agroecosystem Efficiency and Sustainability in a Changing Environment

Location: Sustainable Agricultural Water Systems Research

Title: Biogeochemical cycle of mercury and controlling technologies: Publications in critical reviews in environmental science & technology during 2017–2021

Author
item WANG, JIANXU - CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (GUIYANG)
item MA, LENA - ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY
item LETCHER, ROBERT - CARLETON UNIVERSITY - CANADA
item Bradford, Scott
item FENG, XINBIN - CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (GUIYANG)
item RINKLEBE, JÖRG - UNIVERSITY OF WUPPERTAL

Submitted to: Critical Reviews in Environmental Science Technology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/6/2022
Publication Date: 5/8/2022
Citation: Wang, J., Ma, L.Q., Letcher, R.J., Bradford, S.A., Feng, X., Rinklebe, J. 2022. Biogeochemical cycle of mercury and controlling technologies: Publications in critical reviews in environmental science & technology during 2017–2021. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science Technology. 52(24): 4325-4330. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2022.2071210.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2022.2071210

Interpretive Summary: Mercury poses an health risk to ecosystems and humans. An understanding of the global budget, release, transformation, transport, and toxicity of mercury is needed to accurately assess risks and to develop remediation approaches. A special collect of review manuscripts from Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) published between 2017 and 2021 was therefore assembled to provide readers with an up-to-date state of the knowledge on this topic, to identify research gaps, and to outline future research directions. Additional research is needed to determine the impact of human activities and changing climatic conditions on the mercury cycle. This information will be of interest to scientists, health officials, and government regulators that are concerned with environmental risks from mercury.

Technical Abstract: The Minamata Convention on Mercury (Hg) calls for global efforts to reduce the release and risk of Hg. A better understanding of the global Hg budget, transformation and transport as well as toxicity of Hg in the environment, and Hg emission controlling technologies, is important to minimize Hg pollution and exposure risks. Here, we summarized recent findings regarding the Hg cycle, transport, transformation, and controlling technologies, based on publications in Critical Review in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) during 2017–2021. In terms of CREST publications we first focused on the biogeochemical cycle and impacts of Hg in the sensitive environment of the Tibet Plateau, and technologies being used to control Hg emission from thermal power plants. Second, we discussed the roles of forest in the global cycle of Hg. Third, we reviewed the transport of Hg at artisanal and small-scale gold mining sites, and the mobility and transformation of Hg species in the environment. This special issue covers the recent studies on the cycle, transport, and transformation of Hg, enhances our abilities to develop better strategies to minimize its risks. There are emerging concerns with climatic change and natural and human perturbations on the biogeochemical cycle of Hg in the environment and futures studies are warranted in these areas as well as the global Hg cycle, transport, and remediation.