Historical Records of Mercury Stable Isotopes in Sediments of Tibetan Lakes

Runsheng Yin^{1

2}, Xinbin Feng¹, James P Hurley^{2

3

4}, David P Krabbenhoft⁵, Ryan F Lepak², Shichang Kang^{6

7}, Handong Yang⁸, Xiangdong Li⁹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
² Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁴ University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁵ U.S. Geological Survey, Mercury Research Laboratory, Middleton, WI, 53562, USA.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁷ CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁸ Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
⁹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

PMID: 26996936
PMCID: PMC4800404
DOI: 10.1038/srep23332

Historical Records of Mercury Stable Isotopes in Sediments of Tibetan Lakes

Runsheng Yin et al. Sci Rep. 2016.

. 2016 Mar 21:6:23332.

doi: 10.1038/srep23332.

Authors

Runsheng Yin^{1

2}, Xinbin Feng¹, James P Hurley^{2

3

4}, David P Krabbenhoft⁵, Ryan F Lepak², Shichang Kang^{6

7}, Handong Yang⁸, Xiangdong Li⁹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China.
² Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁴ University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁵ U.S. Geological Survey, Mercury Research Laboratory, Middleton, WI, 53562, USA.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁷ CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁸ Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
⁹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

PMID: 26996936
PMCID: PMC4800404
DOI: 10.1038/srep23332

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as the "Third Pole", is a critical zone for atmospheric mercury (Hg) deposition. Increasing anthropogenic activities in the globe leads to environmental changes, which may affect the loading, transport and deposition of Hg in the environment. However, the deposition history and geochemical cycling of Hg in the TP is still uncertain. Our records of Hg and Hg isotopes in sediment profiles of the two largest lakes in the TP, Lake Qinghai and Nam Co, show increased Hg influx since last century, with the maximum Hg influx enrichment ratios of 5.4 and 3.5 in Lake Qinghai and Nam Co, respectively. Shifts in negative δ (202)Hg in Lake Qinghai (-4.55 to -3.15‰) and Nam Co (-5.04 to -2.16‰) indicate increased atmospheric Hg deposition through rainfall, vegetation and runoff of soils. Mass independent fractionation of both even-Hg (∆ (200)Hg: +0.05 to +0.10‰) and odd-Hg (∆ (199)Hg: +0.12 to +0.31‰) isotopes were observed. Positive Δ (200)Hg suggest high proportion of precipitation-derived Hg in the TP, whereas the positive Δ (199)Hg results from Hg(II) photo-reduction. Both lakes show increasing Δ (199)Hg since the 1900 s, and we conclude that with the decrease of ice duration, Hg(II) photo-reduction may have been accelerated in these TP lakes.

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Figures

**Figure 1. Study area and sampling sites.**
(This image is modified by R-S Yin, on basis of the a Wikimedia Commons map: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Topografic_map_of_Tibetan_Plateau.png#filelinks).

**Figure 2**
Sediment profiles of THg (A), Hg influx (B), Hg influx ratio (C), global average temperature anomaly ((D) according to Hansen *et al.*30) and temperature in TP ((E), according to Zhang *et al.*13), TOC ((F) according to Lami *et al.* and Li *et al.*22), δ ²⁰²Hg (G), ∆ ²⁰⁰Hg (H), ∆ ¹⁹⁹Hg (I) and ice duration ((J) according to Che *et al.* and Ke *et al.*21) in Lake Qinghai and Nam Co.

**Figure 3. Correlations between THg and TOC in sediments of Lake Qinghai and Nam Co.**

**Figure 4**
Relations of δ 202Hg to THg (A) and TOC (B) in sediments of Lake Qinghai and Nam Co.

**Figure 5. Relations between ∆ ¹⁹⁹Hg and ∆ ²⁰¹Hg in sediments of Lake Qinghai and Nam Co.**

**Figure 6**
Relations of ∆ ¹⁹⁹Hg to δ ²⁰²Hg(A), THg (B) and TOC (C) in sediments of Lake Qinghai and Nam Co.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Historical Records of Mercury Stable Isotopes in Sediments of Tibetan Lakes

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Historical Records of Mercury Stable Isotopes in Sediments of Tibetan Lakes

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