Yukon River Dumping More Mercury Thanks to Climate Change

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New research shows that the Yukon River delivers more than five tons of mercury per year to the Arctic environment, likely thanks to climate change
By Douglas Fischer and Daily Climate | October 25, 2011 | 10


The Yukon River is delivering upwards of five tons of mercury a year to the Arctic environment, likely in response to a warming climate, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey announced Tuesday.

The river is pumping three to 32 times more mercury into the environment than similarly sized river basins, based on limited data. And while scientists don't know the reason for the Yukon's big mercury load, they say evidence points strongly to two suspects: Melting permafrost, and the Yukon basin's unique placement as a catchment for pollution from Asia and Europe.

"What has been happening in that part of the world for the past 30 years has been unprecedented in terms of environmental pollution," said Paul Schuster, a USGS hydrologist who was the lead author of the study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

"What we might be seeing is a combination of the release of (mercury) reserves from thawing permafrost and the more recent anthropogenic contamination."

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=yukon-river-dumping-more-mercury-climate-change