Collaborative Research: GEOTRACES Atlantic Section: Mercury Speciation Along a Zonal Section in the North Atlantic

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).GEOTRACES is an international oceanographic program whose goal is to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean and to establish an understanding of the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions. Mercury (Hg) is an element for which almost no data currently exists for the North Atlantic. As such, scientist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Wright State University plan to participate in the GEOTRACES North Atlantic cruise to carry out a full depth investigation of mercury species (i.e., mercuric ion, elemental Hg, monomethylmercury, dimethylmercury) in this ocean basin. Sampling from a wide range of oceanic conditions, including sites of hydrothermal input, upwelling, shelf waters, marginal sea inputs, and regions subject to oceanic mining influences will provide insight to the transport and segregation of Hg species, the potential impacts of past, present, and future anthropogenic Hg emissions on the ocean, as well as the role of the ocean in the global biogeochemical cycle of this element. Because the ocean plays a critical role in human exposure to mercury, this research will also provide insight to the human and ecosystem health threat from methylated-Hg accumulation in fish. One graduate student from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as one graduate and one undergraduate student from Wright State University would be supported and trained as part of this project. It is anticipated the graduate students would participate in the GEOTRACES Atlantic cruise.