title: Impact of climate change on mercury concentrations and deposition in the eastern United States.
abstract: The global-regional climate-air pollution modeling system (GRE-CAPS) was applied over the eastern United States to study the impact of climate change on the concentration and deposition of atmospheric mercury. Summer and winter periods (300 days for each) were simulated, and the present-day model predictions (2000s) were compared to the future ones (2050s) assuming constant emissions. Climate change affects Hg(2+) concentrations in both periods. On average, atmospheric Hg(2+) levels are predicted to increase in the future by 3% in summer and 5% in winter respectively due to enhanced oxidation of Hg(0) under higher temperatures. The predicted concentration change of Hg(2+) was found to vary significantly in space due to regional-scale changes in precipitation, ranging from -30% to 30% during summer and -20% to 40% during winter. Particulate mercury, Hg(p) has a similar spatial response to climate change as Hg(2+), while Hg(0) levels are not predicted to change significantly. In both periods, the response of mercury deposition to climate change varies spatially with an average predicted increase of 6% during summer and 4% during winter. During summer, deposition increases are predicted mostly in the western parts of the domain while mercury deposition is predicted to decrease in the Northeast and also in many areas in the Midwest and Southeast. During winter mercury deposition is predicted to change from -30% to 50% mainly due to the changes in rainfall and the corresponding changes in wet deposition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece; Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (ICEHT/FORTH), 26504 Patras, Greece.
authors.forename: Athanasios G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Megaritis
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM), Stockholm University, 11418 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Benjamin N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Center for Climate Systems Research, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Pavan N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Racherla
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece; Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (ICEHT/FORTH), 26504 Patras, Greece; Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: spyros@chemeng.upatras.gr.
authors.forename: Spyros N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Pandis
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D012621:Seasons; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Climate change; Deposition; GRE-CAPS; Mercury