Journal article
Investigation of mercury emissions from burning of Australian eucalypt forest surface fuels using a combustion wind tunnel and field observations
D Howard, K Macsween, GC Edwards, M Desservettaz, EA Guérette, C Paton-Walsh, NC Surawski, AL Sullivan, C Weston, L Volkova, J Powell, MD Keywood, F Reisen, CP (Mick) Meyer
Atmospheric Environment | PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | Published : 2019
Abstract
Environmental cycling of the toxic metal mercury (Hg) is ubiquitous, and still not completely understood. Volatilisation and emission of mercury from vegetation, litter and soil during burning represents a significant return pathway for previously-deposited atmospheric mercury. Rates of such emission vary widely across ecosystems as they are dependent on species-specific uptake of atmospheric mercury as well as fire return frequencies. Wildfire burning in Australia is currently thought to contribute between 1 and 5% of the global total of mercury emissions, yet no modelling efforts to date have utilised local mercury emission factors (mass of emitted mercury per mass of dry fuel) or local me..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology/CSIRO Cape Grim Program. The authors thank Martin Cope of CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere for leading the experimental burn project and Sam Cleland, Jeremy Ward, Nigel Somerville, Stuart Baly and Cindy Hood of the Bureau of Meteorology for their continued efforts in operating the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station.