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Mercury emissions to the atmosphere and its transport, transformation and deposition to and re-emission from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems on hemispherical and global scales has received increasing attention from both the scientific and the regulatory communities during the last twenty years. It is well known that the atmosphere is the major transport media through which mercury is redistributed on global scale once it is released from point and diffuse emission sources. A substantial amount of research has been carried out worldwide aiming to assess the relationships between emissions from natural vs. anthropogenic sources, inter-hemispherical atmospheric transport patterns, and atmospheric deposition to and re-emission from oceans, its bioaccumulation in fish, and evaluation of policy strategies to reduce the impact of mercury emissions on human health and ecosystems. This chapter provides a highlight of key aspects related to mercury contamination, including: a) major processes affecting the mercury cycle between the atmosphere and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, b) mercury emissions from natural and anthropogenic sources, c) spatial and temporal distributions and trends of mercury species over the northern and southern hemispheres, d) the chemical and physical processes affecting the transport and fate of atmospheric mercury, and e)major policy frameworks aiming to control the impact of mercury on human health and ecosystems.

Doi:10.1080/10473289.2011.599267 The present study focuses on the elemental characterization of fine and coarse particles collected at a coastal site of southwestern Italy, in a suburban area of the Calabria region. [...]

Doi:10.1080/10473289.2011.599279 In order to evaluate the spatial variation of aerosol (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤10 µ.m [[PM.sub.10]]) and ozone ([O.sub.3]) concentrations and characterize the atmospheric conditions that lead to [...]

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). GEOSS is aimed at providing decision-support tools to a wide variety of users. These tools are addressed toward nine social benefit areas (SBAs) that are of critical importance to society. These nine areas are addressed through the GEOSS Common Infrastructure. To support the implementation of the GEOSS Work Plan, two tasks within the Health SBA have been launched: i) HE-02-C1: the Global Mercury Observation System and ii) HE-02-C2: the Global Monitoring of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Emerging Contaminants and Global Change Indicators. The task HE-02-C1aims to: Increase the availability of Earth observation and information needed to both track pollutants and anticipate changes to the environment. Harmonize standard operating procedures for monitoring pollutants and their compounds in air, water, soil, sediments, vegetation and biota. Understand the temporal and spatial patterns of pollutant transport, deposition to, and evasion from, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Support the validation of regional and global atmospheric pollutant models for use in evaluating different policy options. Evaluate the effectiveness of international efforts to reduce pollutant releases. The overarching goal of HE-02-C1 is the development of a global observation system for mercury, realized by harmonizing standard operating procedures for monitoring mercury and its compounds in air, precipitation samples, surface water, soil, sediments, vegetation and biota. The sharing of data from this network, which allows access to data that is comparable, long-term, and from a large number of ground-based and off-shore sites, will help us understand temporal and spatial patterns of mercury transport and deposition to, and evasion from, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The data produced (at 40 ground-based sites, off-shore locations throughout the oceans, and in the UTLS) will support the validation of regional and global atmospheric mercury models for use in evaluating different policy options for reducing mercury pollution and its impacts on human health and ecosystems. The data sets, the validated models, and the interoperable system that is produced within this program, will support the policymaking process in the framework of UNEP Governing Council activities, and in the UNECE-LRTAP convention. The task builds upon contributions from, among others, the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project, the UNEP Mercury Programme, the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants Task Force (TF HTAP), the European Monitoring and Evaluation Program (EMEP), the MercNet/AMNet initiative in the USA, the CAMNet in Canada, and other international monitoring and modelling efforts.

Consistent, high-quality measurements of atmospheric mercury (Hg) are necessary in order to better understand Hg emissions, transport, and deposition on a global scale. Although the number of atmospheric Hg monitoring stations has increased in recent years, the available measurement database is limited and there are many regions of the world where measurements have not been extensively performed. Long-term atmospheric Hg monitoring and additional ground-based monitoring sites are needed in order to generate datasets that will offer new insight and information about the global scale trends of atmospheric Hg emissions and deposition. In the framework of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project, a coordinated global observational network for atmospheric Hg is being established. The overall research strategy of GMOS is to develop a state-of-the-art observation system able to provide information on the concentration of Hg species in ambient air and precipitation on the global scale. This network is being developed by integrating previously established ground-based atmospheric Hg monitoring stations with newly established GMOS sites that are located both at high altitude and sea level locations, as well as in climatically diverse regions. Through the collection of consistent, high-quality atmospheric Hg measurement data, we seek to create a comprehensive assessment of atmospheric Hg concentrations and their dependence on meteorology, long-range atmospheric transport and atmospheric emissions.

The Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) Project includes a specific Work Package aimed at developing tools (i.e. databases, catalogs, services) to collect GMOS datasets, harvest mercury databases, and offer services like search, view, and download spatial datasets from the GMOS portal (www.gmos.eu). The system will be developed under the framework of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Directive and the Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information, which both aim to make relevant, harmonized, high-quality geographic information available to support the formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and activities that have a direct or indirect impact on the environment. Three databases have been proposed (on emissions, field data and model results), and each will be equipped with state-of-the-art, open-source software to allow for the highest performance possible. Web-based user-interfaces and prototype applications will be developed to demonstrate the potential of blending different datasets from different servers for environmental assessment studies. Several services (i.e. catalog browsers, WMS and WCS services, web GIS services) will be developed to facilitate data integration, data re-use, and data exchange within and beyond the GMOS project. Different types of measurement and model datasets provided by project partners and other sources will be integrated into PostgreSQL-PostGIS, harmonized by creating INSPIRE-compliant metadata and made available to a larger community of stakeholders, policy makers, scientists, and NGOs (as well as to other public and private institutions, as dictated by the Directive 2003/4/EC). Since interoperability is a central concept for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the Global Monitoring for Environmental and Security (GMES) and the INSPIRE Directive, guidelines developed in these three frameworks will be adopted. The use of standards will be a key concern throughout the encoding process. We will use the international standards for data and spatial schemas (ISO19107, ISO14825), for metadata (ISO19115:2003, ISO/DTS19139:2005, ISO15836) and for services (WMS 1.1.1, WFS 1.0, SLD 1.0, GML 3.1). On the other side, we will use XML for data exchange, together with SOAP, XSD, J2EE (for applications development) and W3C (for standard interfaces). With specific reference to GMES, the global database on mercury monitoring and the GMOS model outputs will be made available through a series of monitoring, forecast and re-analysis services. Finally, we hope the GMOS operational services will contribute to the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) project, by providing access to atmospheric environmental services.

The Mediterranean basin, due to its semi-enclosed configuration, is one of the areas heavily affected by aerosols. Despite implications on both human health and radiative budget involve an increasing interest, aerosol data are yet relatively scarce. In this work we show a dataset resulting from five ship-borne measurements performed, from 2003 to 2007, across the Mediterranean basin. Results involve daily fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM2.5-10) particle size fraction concentrations as well as trace metal chemical analysis. According to aerosol optical properties and to chemical composition, continental aerosols, Saharan dust and maritime aerosols have been identified during the cruise campaigns. Shipping emissions, representing both local harbours and maritime traffic across the basin, were also tested using the marker ratio of V and Ni, showing a quite large contribution to the total aerosol load. Spatial variability of the aerosol concentrations resulted in a larger fine concentration over the eastern Mediterranean sector compared with that resulted in the western one mainly due to the background contribution of anthropogenic compounds.

This study details mercury pollution within the food chain of the Mediterranean by analysing the most comprehensive mercury dataset available for biota and water measurements. In this study we computed a bioaccumulation factor (BAF) for datasets in the existing mercury-related scientific literature, in on-going programs, and in past measurement campaigns. Preliminary results indicate a major lack of information, making the outcome of any assessment very uncertain. Importantly, not all marine eco-regions are (or have ever been) covered by measurement campaigns. Most lacking is information associated with the South-Eastern part of the Mediterranean, and in several eco-regions it is still impossible to reconstruct a trophic net, as the required species were not accounted for when mercury measurements were taken. The datasets also have additional temporal sampling problems, as species were often not sampled systematically (but only sporadically during any given sampling period). Moreover, datasets composed of mercury concentrations in water also suffer from similar geographic limitations, as they are concentrated in the North-Western Mediterranean. Despite these concerns, we found a very clear bioaccumulation trend in 1999, the only year where comprehensive information on both methylmercury concentrations in water and biota was available.

In recent years, a substantial amount of work has been done to evaluate uncertainty associated with major industrial source emissions. Yet, little has been done to assess uncertainty associated with natural source emissions. Importantly, uncertainty estimates continue to be particularly relevant in the assessment of potential regulatory options, as confidence in emissions can lead to different cost-benefit assessments. To address this problem, we employed the Monte Carlo technique to improve uncertainty estimates associated with mercury emissions from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Results demonstrate that uncertainties, as they are understood in the existing literature, are overestimated. While we are aware that a probabilistic approach like the Monte Carlo technique has certain limitations (it does not consider the accuracy of available input data, for example) it still is useful in crafting a better assessment of mercury emission uncertainty.

Within the framework of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), we are monitoring gaseous elemental mercury (Hg(0)) at the Dome Concordia Station to improve our understanding of atmospheric Hg in the Antarctic atmosphere. This French-Italian facility is located in one of the coldest places on the planet and is situated on the vast Antarctic Plateau at an elevation of 3320 m. Continuous measurements began on December 7, 2011 and are ongoing. The median value calculated over the period (n=24506) is approximately 0.9 ng/m3 and values range from

This study presents results from an integrated assessment of mercury pollution aimed at characterizing the primary gaps in our knowledge of the monitoring of the Mediterranean Sea. To conduct this study, we compared measurements of mercury in water and biota with the Environmental Quality Standards laid down by the Environmental Quality Standards Directive (2008/105/EC). This methodological approach is based on the DPSWR (Driver-Pressure-State-Welfare change-Response).

In the market of geospatial systems there are several applications that handle data. Some of these components are oriented towards managing and storing data, map visualizations, and data streams, while other components are oriented towards data description and the creation of metadata. Neither of these applications offers users an overview of the process leading to the data creation up to its export to the end user. In the existing literature there are attempts to automate metadating - the term given to descriptions of data. Some companies are also trying an approach that allows, by means of workflow systems, the automation of the creation of a geospatial dataset. As a result, users of geospatial data are increasingly looking for a more structured process of managing geospatial data and metadata, and any tool that handles this process is likely to find reasonable success within this community. Public entities, mainly local ones, are often called on to deal with regulations that require web systems that reveal parameters of any given territory to users/citizens. Likewise, research organizations, especially those dealing with the environment, increasingly find themselves analyzing spatial data. Difficulties that arise when handling such data can be overcome using the approach we are proposing, which involves using a single tool that handles all the necessary steps in exporting spatial data. In this paper we present several methodologies used to manage geospatial data and metadata by means of GeoInt, a middleware tool developed at CNR-IIA that manages geospatial data produced in different research projects. GeoInt is a middleware program offering basic services that permit users to define both data and metadata. It allows users to manage map servers, and allows them to control the download and sharing processes. This research illustrates the ways in which GeoInt has been improved to minimize metadata editing by its users.

In this abstract we describe the Dasymetric Mapping (DM) technique applied to mercury contaminated sites. The DM is an intelligent disaggregation procedure that incorporates ancillary data to facilitate the areal interpolation process. It differs from choropleth mapping in that areas are defined based on the actual spatial distribution of the variable being mapped, rather than administrative or other arbitrary units. The disaggregation weight was derived from soil carbon content, as it was found that increases in total mercury (and methylmercury) concentrations are related to increasing fractions of organic carbon (OC) in the soil. The DM technique was implemented in ArcGis® by creating a model that uses emissions from contaminated sites, an area-class map, and a sampling strategy set out as binary.

Heavy metals can cause adverse effects to humans, animals and ecosystems due to their bioavailability and toxicity in various environmental compartments. In the last decades, many policy strategies and measures have been taken at global, regional and local level in relation to heavy metals, due to their adverse effects and ability to be transported over long distances. Several EU measures have been adopted in order to control the pollution from heavy metals in the main sectors. This paper will provide an overview of trends of emissions, air concentrations and atmospheric depositions of heavy metals in Italy and of the main relevant EU legislation and its goals (Directives on paints, batteries, industrial emissions, etc.) together with policies adopted at Italian level.

As part of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project, a global-scale network of ground-based atmospheric monitoring sites is being developed with the objective of expanding the global coverage of atmospheric mercury (Hg) measurements and improving our understanding of global atmospheric Hg transport. An important addition to the GMOS monitorng network has been the high altitude EvK2CNR Pyramid Observatory, located at an elevation of 5,050 meters a.s.l. in the eastern Himalaya Mountains of Nepal. Monitoring of total gaseous mercury (TGM) using the Tekran 2537A Mercury Vapor Analyzer began at the EvK2CNR Pyramid Observatory in November 2011. From 17 November 2011 to 23 April 2012, the mean concentration of TGM at the Pyramid was 1.2 ng m−3. A range of concentrations from 0.7 to 2.6 ng m−3 has been observed. These are the first reported measurements of atmospheric Hg in Nepal, and currently this is the highest altitude monitoring station for atmospheric Hg in the world. It is anticipated that these high quality measurements, in combination with the other continuous atmospheric measurments being collected at the Pyramid station, will help to further our understanding of Hg concentrations in the free troposphere and the transport of atmospheric Hg on the global scale.

The modelling of atmospheric Hg chemistry, transport and deposition has progressed significantly over the last few years, aided by a number of factors. These include an improved understanding of the processes involved in the atmospheric Hg cycle, advances in computer performance, an ever increasing archive of measurement data with which model results may be compared, and also an increase in the number of models (global, regional and zero-dimensional) currently in use. The increase in the number of models has permitted model intercomparisons to be performed for the first time. The number of global models available to provide initial and boundary conditions for regional models has increased and the possibility of using modelling ensembles to verify emission and deposition fluxes is close to becoming a reality. This abstract describes the development of a mercury chemistry version of the WRF/Chem, which due to the architecture of the model permits a number of chemical mechanisms to be employed within the same model.

Only a few years ago the presence of Reactive Gaseous Mercury (RGM) was believed to be almost exclusively the result of anthropogenic emissions and that sustained high RGM concentrations in the MBL were not considered likely. During the past ten years, an in-depth investigation was carried out in the Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) of the Mediterranean Sea to quantify and possibly explain spatial and temporal patterns of Hg-species concentrations. This paper provides an overview of modeling results and atmospheric measurements performed during several cruise campaigns performed aboard the Research Vessel (RV) URANIA of the CNR over the Mediterranean sea basin. RGM concentrations have been modelled using a photochemical box model of the MBL and compared to measured data obtained during the research cruises. The comparison results supports the hypothesis that there are daytime mercury oxidation reactions occurring which have not yet been identified. Major findings of key studies carried out during ten years of ship-borne activities have been highlighted.

In Italy there are 25 Large Industrial Point Sources whose mercury emissions in air exceed the established threshold of 10 kg year−1. Many of these mercury point sources, mostly distributed along the Italian coastal area, are located at sites qualified as National Interest Rehabilitation Sites because of documented contamination in qualitative and/or quantitative terms and of potential health impact. Atmospheric mercury emissions related to Italian Large Industrial Point Sources, with a value of 1.04 Mg·yr−1 for 2007, have a not negligible contribution, accounting, on their own, for more than 10% of the total mercury emissions resulting from all activity sectors at a national level. Among others, thermal power stations, pig iron and steel as well as basic inorganic chemical production, result to be the main contributing industrial activities. In order to assess how mercury species concentrations and distribution in the Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) change with vicinity to large industrial sites, measurements of atmospheric mercury were performed during three oceanographic campaigns aboard the Research Vessel (R.V.) Urania of the Italian CNR. Collection of GEM, GOM and PBM was conducted across the Adriatic sea, during autumn 2004 (27th of October to 12th of November) and summer 2005 (17th to 29th of June), and across the Tyrrhenian sea during autumn 2007 (12th of September to 1st October). Analysis were carried out with reference to the period in which the R.V. Urania has stopped close to the main Italian industrial contaminated sites. Explorative statistical parameters of atmospheric mercury species were computed over each single stop-period and then compared with the overall cruise campaign measurements. Results are herein presented and discussed.

The United Nations Environment Programme Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research Partnership Area (UNEP F&T) started its activity in 2005 and since then have provided a valuable contribution to the UNEP Mercury Programme and established a close cooperation with other international programs (i.e., GEO Task HE-09-02d / GEOSS) and conventions (UNECE-Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution). The UNEP F&T aims to improve the global understanding of international mercury emission sources, fate and transport and to encourage collaborative research activities on different aspects of atmospheric mercury cycling at local, hemispheric and global scales. This paper provides an overview of major recent and future activities carried out by the Mercury Air Transport and Fate Research Partnership Area in the framework of the UNEP Mercury Programme and the ongoing negotiation process for developing a global legally binding instrument on mercury.