title: Steady-state mass balance model for mercury in the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.
abstract: We have developed a local mass balance model for the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall, Ontario that describes the fate and transport of mercury in three forms, elemental, divalent, and methylated, in a five compartment environment (air, water, sediments, periphyton, and benthos). Our objective was to construct a steady-state mass balance model to determine the dominant sources and sinks of mercury in this environment. We compiled mercury concentrations, fluxes, and transformation rates from previous studies completed in this section of the river to develop the model. The inflow of mercury was the major source to this system, accounting for 0.42 mol month(-1), or 95.5% of all mercury inputs, whereas outflow was 0.28 mol month(-1), or 63.6% of all losses, and sediment deposition was 0.12 mol month(-1), or 27.3% of all losses. Uncertainty estimates were greatest for advective fluxes in surface water, porewater, periphyton, and benthic invertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Charlotte R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Lessard
authors.forename: Alexandre J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Poulain
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ridal
authors.forename: Jules M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Blais
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009864:Ontario; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury