Replacement mercury-in-air analyzer for quantifying mercury retention in ecosystems

汞是一种急性神经毒物和扰乱内分泌的化学物质，在食物网中生物放大，导致营养水平较高的生物体的神经和生殖影响。汞污染是一个全球性问题，在可预见的未来，它将对人类和汞敏感生态系统中的食物网构成越来越大的健康风险。虽然人们对汞进入生态系统的了解很多，但对生态系统中汞的损失和汞的净保留量(通常称为生态系统敏感性)的了解要少得多。以汞(0)形式向大气中流失的汞是一个重要的过程，它在很大程度上控制着生态系统中汞的滞留和海洋中汞的全球分布。因此，能够测量环境空气中的汞(0)和天然水中痕量汞的溶解是必不可少的。一些国家(如加拿大汞科学评估)和国际(环境署全球汞条约)倡议导致对汞分析的需求增加。*奥德里斯科尔博士在阿卡迪亚环境分析研究中心(CARE)的汞实验室是研究人员在加拿大东部和全球检查汞污染物的合作中心。CARE提供先进的分析设备(来自五个成功的CFI应用程序)，用于研究和测量环境中的污染物。这种分析能力是我正在进行的研究计划的关键组成部分；然而，阿卡迪亚现有的空气中汞(0)分析设备现在已经过时(Tekran于2015年停止使用)。现有的设备需要许多替换部件，这些部件不再从供应商处获得，此外，也没有我们研究计划所需的检测极限和精度。这是加拿大东部唯一可用的同类分析仪，对许多正在进行的研究项目和论文的完成至关重要。要求升级的汞分析仪还将提高我们目前项目所需分析的准确性和重复性。升级后的设备将提供最先进的分析能力，并将支持许多研究生的工作以及许多来访的国际合作者和学生的相关培训。许多学生(未来5年每年10名学生)受益于这种设备，它将把几所国际大学的研究生培训联系起来。在这项研究计划内开发的科学被直接纳入预测模型，这些模型正被用于国家和国际一级的政策制定，并最终将有助于保护人类和生态系统健康。

Mercury is an acute neurotoxicant and endocrine-disrupting chemical that biomagnifies in food webs, resulting in neurological and reproductive effects in higher trophic level organisms. Mercury pollution is a global problem that will pose increasing health risks to humans and food webs in mercury sensitive ecosystems into the foreseeable future. While much is known about mercury entry in ecosystems much less is known about mercury loss from ecosystems and the net retention of mercury (often referred to as ecosystem sensitivity). Mercury loss to the atmosphere in the form of Hg(0) is a significant process that largely controls mercury retention in ecosystems and the global distribution of mercury in oceans. As such, the ability to measure Hg(0) in both ambient air and dissolved in trace levels in natural water is essential. Several national (e.g. Canadian Mercury Science Assessment) and international (UNEP Global Mercury Treaty) initiatives are resulting in an increased demand for mercury analyses.*******Dr. O'Driscoll's mercury lab in Acadia's Center for Analytical Research on the Environment (CARE) is a collaborative hub for researchers examining mercury contaminants in Eastern Canada and globally. CARE provides advanced analytical equipment (from five successful CFI applications) for studying and measuring contaminants in the environment. This analysis capability is a key component of my ongoing research program; however, the existing Hg(0)-in-air analysis equipment at Acadia is now obsolete (discontinued by Tekran in 2015). The existing equipment requires many replacement parts which are no longer available from the supplier, and in addition does not have the detection limits and precision required for our research program. This is the only available analyzer of its kind in eastern Canada and it is critical to the completion of many ongoing research projects and theses. The requested upgraded mercury analyzer will also allow for increased accuracy and reproducibility of analyses required for our current projects. This upgraded equipment will provide state-of-the-art analysis capabilities and will support the work of many graduate students and the associated training of many visiting international collaborators and students. Many students (>10 students per year over next 5 years) with benefit from this equipment which will link graduate student training at several international universities. The science developed within this research program is directly incorporated into predictive models that are being used for policy development at national and international levels and will ultimately help to protect human and ecosystem health.******