Source Apportionment of Total Gaseous Mercury (TGM)

In 2024-2025, a study was undertaken to estimate the contributions of various sources to total gaseous mercury (TGM) at Canadian rural sites using the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model and air monitoring data (Cheng et al., 2025). The sites are located in Saturna, British Columbia; Egbert, Ontario; and Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia. Monthly and annual mean source contributions to TGM for each site are provided. The source contributions to TGM are available as concentrations (ng/m3) and relative percentages. The mercury sources extracted from the PMF model include anthropogenic sources (such as local combustion and shipping), natural surface emissions (such as wildfires and re-emissions from land and oceans), and the global atmospheric mercury pool. The long-term data on TGM source contributions provide information on potential causes of TGM concentration trends. This informs scientific and policy questions of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, the global treaty for protecting the environment and human health from mercury pollution. Cheng, I., Cole, A., Zhang, L., and Steffen, A. (2025). Natural surface emissions dominate anthropogenic emissions contributions to…

Publisher

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Resources

2

Catalogue metadata updated

2025-12-16