Synopsis: Wet mercury deposition data, that has been previously collected and made available by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program Mercury Deposition Network, will be statistically analyzed to asses whether any significant trends in atmospheric mercury levels exist. This will be done for 21 monitoring sites in states/provinces bordering the Great Lakes and 7 control sites in other states. Because mercury concentrations and depositions depend on precipitation rate, data will be normalized to a standard rate for each site.

Chemicals Studied: Mercury

Geographic Areas: Great Lakes states/provinces, and 7 other states

Project Duration: 7.5 months

Potential Results and Implications: A time trend slope for mercury concentration in precipitation for each of 21 MDN monitoring sites along with the statistical significances will be developed. These results will represent about 7 years of data on average.

These results will provide a benchmark for future trend comparisons and will also provide a guide for methodology in assessing depositional trends.

Project Contact:
Michael Sydor
University of Minnesota Duluth
10 University Drive, Duluth, Minnesota 55812
Phone: (218) 736-7205
Email: msydor@d.umn.edu