eprintid: 10165620 rev_number: 9 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/16/56/20 datestamp: 2023-02-28 12:03:22 lastmod: 2023-02-28 12:03:22 status_changed: 2023-02-28 12:03:22 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Yang, Handong creators_name: Macario-González, Laura creators_name: Cohuo, Sergio creators_name: Whitmore, Thomas J creators_name: Salgado, Jorge creators_name: Peréz, Liseth creators_name: Schwalb, Antje creators_name: Rose, Neil L creators_name: Holmes, Jonathan creators_name: Riedinger-Whitmore, Melanie A creators_name: Hoelzmann, Philipp creators_name: O'Dea, Aaron title: Mercury Pollution History in Tropical and Subtropical American Lakes: Multiple Impacts and the Possible Relationship with Climate Change ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C03 divisions: F26 keywords: Atmospheric deposition, climate impact, human impact, lake sediments, pollutants, secondary pollution, subtropics, tropics note: This work is licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). abstract: Sediment cores obtained from 11 tropical and subtropical American lakes revealed that local human activities significantly increased mercury (Hg) inputs and pollution levels. Remote lakes also have been contaminated by anthropogenic Hg through atmospheric depositions. Long-term sediment-core profiles revealed an approximately 3-fold increase in Hg fluxes to sediments from c. 1850 to 2000. Generalized additive models indicate that c. 3-fold increases in Hg fluxes also occurred since 2000 in the remote sites, while Hg emissions from anthropogenic sources have remained relatively stable. The tropical and subtropical Americas are vulnerable to extreme weather events. Air temperatures in this region have shown a marked increase since the 1990s, and extreme weather events arising from climate change have increased. When comparing Hg fluxes to recent (1950-2016) climatic changes, results show marked increases in Hg fluxes to sediments during dry periods. The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) time series indicate a tendency toward more extreme drier conditions across the study region since the mid-1990s, suggesting that instabilities in catchment surfaces caused by climate change are responsible for the elevated Hg flux rates. Drier conditions since c. 2000 appear to be promoting Hg fluxes from catchments to lakes, a process that will likely be exacerbated under future climate-change scenarios. date: 2023-02-21 date_type: published publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS) official_url: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c09870 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2007080 doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c09870 medium: Print-Electronic lyricists_name: Holmes, Jonathan lyricists_name: Yang, Handong lyricists_name: Rose, Neil lyricists_id: JAHOL84 lyricists_id: HYANG48 lyricists_id: NLROS84 actors_name: Yang, Handong actors_id: HYANG48 actors_role: owner funding_acknowledgements: 218604 [Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog?a]; 218639 [Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog?a]; SCHW 671/16-1 [Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft]; [Florida Department of Environmental Protection]; [Osceola County Public Works] full_text_status: public publication: Environmental Science and Technology event_location: United States citation: Yang, Handong; Macario-González, Laura; Cohuo, Sergio; Whitmore, Thomas J; Salgado, Jorge; Peréz, Liseth; Schwalb, Antje; ... O'Dea, Aaron; + view all <#> Yang, Handong; Macario-González, Laura; Cohuo, Sergio; Whitmore, Thomas J; Salgado, Jorge; Peréz, Liseth; Schwalb, Antje; Rose, Neil L; Holmes, Jonathan; Riedinger-Whitmore, Melanie A; Hoelzmann, Philipp; O'Dea, Aaron; - view fewer <#> (2023) Mercury Pollution History in Tropical and Subtropical American Lakes: Multiple Impacts and the Possible Relationship with Climate Change. Environmental Science and Technology 10.1021/acs.est.2c09870 <https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c09870>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10165620/2/Yang_acs.est.2c09870.pdf