Barite-bound mercury in marine sediments; potential release and bioavailability under Arctic conditions:Literature review
Year: 2019
Type: report
Abstract: Comprehensive Arctic monitoring programmes have found that mercury is of high concern regarding bioaccumulation and biomagnification in Arctic food webs, and the health of marine mammals and humans in the Arctic. This review evaluates the potential rate of release and methylation of mercury entering the environment from oil exploration activities. Our review indicates that there is a lack of data on the rates of mercury methylation in Arctic sediments and we assess that the traditional methods for estimating solubility and partitioning coefficients, sediment porosity, diffusion coefficients and complex algorithms are insufficient and subject to uncertainty. Hence, realistic rates need to be established for the natural Arctic sediments considering their specific physical and chemical properties.
Institution: Aarhus University
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4412338645