Continental outflow shapes the circum-Antarctic pattern of summertime atmospheric mercury depletion zones.

ABSTRACT: Atmospheric mercury depletion events (AMDEs) are a unique phenomenon in polar mercury cycling, involving intense atmospheric mercury oxidation and deposition that amplify marine mercury sinks. The Southern Ocean, a critical hotspot for environmental mercury exposure, exhibits AMDEs whose characteristics and distribution patterns remain unclear. This study presents the observational dataset of atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) across the circum-Antarctic Southern Ocean. We observed pronounced summertime AMDEs that drove high spatial heterogeneity in circumpolar GEM distribution. By combining Generalized Additive Models (GAM) simulations with multi-platform observational evidence, we demonstrate that the Antarctic continental outflow largely shapes the circumpolar distribution of s

SUBMITTER: Xie Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12852816 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature