Global fate and transport of mercury
Background: The ultimate goal within this research area is to understand the fate of mercury in the environment and how it enters food webs. My Ph.D. dissertation work identified several poorly-understood processes that control this fate and, thus, will be my focus in the medium-term future. These include wet scavenging of soluble mercury, gas-particle partitioning, photoreduction of Hg(II) in air and snow, and rapid oxidation events in the upper troposphere and marine boundary layer. To address the wet scavenging issue, for example, I am adding mercury chemistry and scavenging to a cloud-resolving atmospheric model with detailed cloud microphysics. This modeling tool will enable us to explore the dynamical and chemical causes of mercury enhancements in thunderstorms, the regional enhancement of mercury deposition in the southeast US, and wet deposition data elsewhere.