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Effects of temperature and other atmospheric conditions on long-termgaseous mercury observations in the Arctic.

Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) measurements from Alert, Canada, from 1995 to 2007 were analyzed for statistical time trends and for correlations with meteorological and climate data. A significant decreasing trend in annual GEM concentration is reported at Alert, with an estimated slope of -0.0086 ng m-3 yr-1 (0.6% yr-114 ) over this 13-year period. It is shown that there has been a shift in the month of minimum mean GEM concentration from May to April due to a change in the timing of springtime atmospheric mercury depletion events (AMDEs). These AMDEs are found to decrease with local temperature within each month, both at Alert and at Amderma, Russia.

These results agree with the temperature dependence suggested by previous experimental results and theoretical kinetic calculations and highlight the potential for changes in Arctic mercury chemistry with climate.

A correlation between total monthly AMDEs at Alert and the Polar/Eurasian Teleconnection Index was observed only in M

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