Unraveling the biogeochemical cycling of mercury using stable mercury isotopes as source tracers

汞污染在地方、区域和全球范围内对人类健康和自然生态系统构成重大威胁。尽管自前工业时代以来，人为的汞排放大幅增加，但自然排放对全球总库存和通量的贡献很大。这给负责管理环境中汞的监管机构带来了相当大的挑战，因为通常不可能区分自然和人为汞的来源。因此，详细了解汞的生物地球化学循环是至关重要的，但并不总是充分的。稳定汞同位素比值的测量和汞同位素分馏的测定是一种新的有希望的工具，可以用来追踪汞的来源，并对汞在总汞迁移中的相对重要性有新的认识。

Mercury contamination poses a significant threat for human health and natural ecosystems at local, regional and global scales. Although man-made mercury emissions have increased dramatically since pre-industrial times, natural emissions represent a substantial contribution the overall global inventory and fluxes. This poses a considerable challenge for regulators tasked with managing mercury in the environment, as it is often impossible to distinguish natural from anthropogenic mercury sources. Thus, a detailed understanding of the biogeochemical cycle of mercury is crucial, but not always sufficient. The measurement of stable mercury isotope ratios and determination mercury isotope fractionation is a new promising tool to trace sources of mercury and to gain new insights into their relative importance to the total mercury transport.