12th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant

12th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant 
Dates: 14 – 19 June 2015
Location: Jeju, Korea

For further information: http://mercury2015.com

GEOTRACES-related Session:

17. Integrating marine observational studies and model development
Conveners: Anne Laerke Soerensen & Lars-Eric Heimbürger

On a global scale the primary mercury exposure pathway for humans is via the consumption of marine fish that bioaccumulates methylmercury. The marine production of methylmercury is thought to be related to the bacterial degradation of organic matter and inorganic mercury availability. Anthropogenic mercury emissions have increased the oceanic mercury reservoir, and thereby lead to increased methylmercury production and human exposure. Models simulating mercury biogeochemistry and transport in the oceans have been developed, yet few oceanic observations have so far been available to evaluate model performance. Moreover, marine mercury observations in most oceans have shown large decreases over the past decades. This may be related to decreased anthropogenic mercury inputs to the oceans or to better analytical performances. In this session we would like to confront recent model results with the latest field observations as well as define knowledge gaps and future research needs for combined observation – model assessments. We invite talks concerning mercury cycling and speciation in the oceans, ideally, but not limited to model approaches and field data.

 
Conference Workshops:

GEOTRACES Intercalibration exercises for Hg species in seawater discussion forum
Conveners: Lars-Eric Heimbürger

Mercury is one of the least concentrated elements in the oceans. We need to be able to measure, understand and interpret variability in mercury concentrations in the ocean, which is often as low as some 10 percent. We organized international intcalibration exercises for total mercury and total methylmercury determination in sea water collected during the 2013 Dutch GEOTRACES MedBlack cruise (GA04- Black Sea) and the 2014 French GEOTRACES GEOVIDE (GA01- North Atlantic Ocean). Both exercises were intended to primarily evaluate the analytical performance of each participating laboratory. Therefore each laboratory received a single sample bottle of similar size, that has undergone the same cleaning procedure prior to sampling, and each sample was preserved in the same manner. The 2013 exercise was intended as a broader screening with a maximum number (25) of participating laboratories. Results indicated substantial disagreement between the participating laboratories, for both total mercury and methylmercury determinations. For the 2014 exercise we could only invite 10 laboratories. Intercomparability of the second exercise was considerably better, but needs to be further improved in the years to come. For this workshop we invite the participants of the of those and previous GEOTRACES intercalibration exercises as well as scientists interested in marine mercury and low level measurements. Together, we will examine the results of both intercalibration exercises in detail, attempt to explain causes for disagreements, and develop ideas for future developments to achieve traceable mercury measurements in the oceans.